References and Links Publications Colin Austin's Story Comments welcome - email me

to see latest files go to index_date_subject.html and search for files by date or subject

New files

food_security.pdf

food_crisis.pdf

new_developments.

pdf

politics_of_soil carbon.pdf

File on large scale application has been updated 12 May 2011

Links to Wicking beds

trailer_katie keeps her cool.wmv

wicking bed history.html

wicking worm beds.pdf

shade house.pdf

gin gin school

Links to water management

alternative water.pdf

harvesting smaller rains.html

water and the whistle blower.wmv

community action on water.pdf

eco-education.html

Water at the eco village.wmv

solving the water crisis vol 1, Vol 2, vol 3, vol 4, vol 5

Just added (20 Feb 2012) , soil_maker how to create quality top soil

Report on wicking beds and weather released 1st Feb 2012

vision.pdf looks at soil regeneration

About this site

Colin Austin 10 May 2011

Some thirty five years ago Australia suffered tremendous dust storms losing millions of tonnes of top soil. I realized at some time in the future top soil would be critical for feeding the world and set up a series of experiments to find out how to regenerate top soil (soil_regeneration). I learned that the key was microbiological action which required keeping the ground moist at all times and continuously growing plants.

We now know that the mycorrhizal fungi take energy from the plants and form aggregates the soil so it can better hold water and nutrients. I searched for better ways of keeping the soil moist (but not saturated) which lead to the development of the wicking bed system. This has proved very popular with environmentally sensitive and water conscious growers. wicking_bed_technology.pdf

However the threat of global warming made me realize that this system has the potential to mitigate climate change by absorbing large amounts of atmospheric carbon. I therefore had to develop a way for using wicking beds on a large scale. This was achieved by linking wicking beds together, (adoption). However for the wide scale usage necessary to absorb the tens of billions of tones needed to offset man made emissions meant that farmer had to receive revenues from carbon trading. innovation_in soil_carbon.pdf

This requires convincing Governemnts, at the various United Nations conference on climate change to recognize that by changing our agricultural system we can both absorb carbon and also safeguard our future food supply. We are already seeing how the flood and drought cycles of climate change are damaging agriculture and leading to rising food prices.

queensland floods and climate change (qfldfloods.html)

safeguarding_future_food _supply.pdf

resolving_climate_change.pdf

I felt that an international consortium of research institutions could provide the hard evidence to convince Governments and also provide a simple mechanism for soil carbon trading.

Invitation_for_joint_research.pdf

research_summary.pdf

preface about a sustainable world.

In a few days I leave for China to discuss this consortium. china,flood.pdf

Over the years I have written many papers which at first sight could be overpowering, however they are easily accessed by going to index where the files can be accessed in either data or subject order. Index

Wicking beds

The wicking bed is an innovative technology, essentially a new agricultural system. They give increased food production, with significantly less water, recycle organic waste to provide plant nutrients, reduce chemical run off into our rivers and sequester carbon into the soil, helping to reduce climate change.

	An underground water reservoir is filled with organic waste and water. Nutrient rich water, essentially a compost tea wicks upwards to the root zone. The soil is maintained moist, not saturated giving increased food production. Water can also be harvested by directing run-off into the wicking bed. see "wicking_bed_technology.pdf"
	Significant quantities of water are stored in the reservoir so watering can be less frequent and making the beds better adapted to erratic rainfall. Production is higher than conventional systems with less need for external inputs of water and fertilizer.
	Any water applied is contained in the reservoir so run off into aquifers or the river system is reduced. Instead urban waste, sewage and forest trimmings to reduce bush fires can be recycled, preserving nutrients.
	Significant quantities of atmospheric carbon can be sequestered and embedded into the soil. Carbon is embedded into chemically stable humus by micro biological action which thrives in the moist conditions. This removes on of the major impediments to obtaining a global agreement on climate change. see carbon_capture_in the soil and resolving_climate_change.pdf
	Wicking beds are well suited to developing countries improving their food security while allowing then to expand their economies while controlling emissions. This removes on of the major impediments to obtaining a global agreement on climate change. resolving_global_warming.pdf
	Wicking beds are widely used in Australia, largely by environmentally sensitive amateur growers. To achieve the full benefits of reduced green house gases and pollution commercial farmers need to install wicking beds on a significant scale. How to achieve this scale is discussed in large scale adoption

Wicking beds

Wicking beds were initially developed as a way of managing an erratic rainfall. Experience showed then to be a highly productive growing system.

The wicking bed enables us to grow food with a lot less water, it can be used to harvest water otherwise lost and particularly it can actually capture carbon from the atmosphere.

The wicking worm bed is a highly productive growing system which not only produces more food from limited water, but also recycles waste organic material to provide plant nutrient and capture carbon.

The essence is to form an underground reservoir of water or pond contained by a waterproof container or liner below the surface. Water wicks by surface tension to feed the plants.

vision.pdf

Summary - This report presents a technology designed to improve food security and offset climate change by taking carbon from the atmosphere and embedding in the soil.

While plants absorb many times man-made emissions most of the carbon is returned to the atmosphere by degradation and decomposition so there is only marginal benefit in reducing atmospheric carbon. This technology diverts this stream of returning carbon back into the soil to regenerate top soil to simultaneously enhance food production and reduce atmospheric carbon.

More information

wicking_bed_technology.pdf

wicking_beds_under_construction.pdf

wicking_worm_beds.pdf

Instruction on how to make a wicking bed

Answers to common questions

stones, sand and organic matter

bed_depths

New wicking bed site www.easygrowvegetables.com

Climate change - capturing carbon in the soil

With the rapid growth of the developing countries, particularly coal burning countries like China and India we are not going to be able to reduce our carbon emission adequately to control global warming.

The only solution is to extract carbon from the atmosphere. Plant already extract 30 times more carbon than total and made emissions. The problem it that this carbon rapidly en-enters the atmosphere. This chapter shows how we can retain this carbon in the soil

Resolving_climate_change.pdf
Wicking beds and climate change
climate change -obstacles to getting a global agreement
food production and climate change
plants absorbing carbon dioxide
wicking_ bed_ technology (pdf)
Review of Copenhagen (pdf)
The future of agriculture (pdf)Comments welcome - email me

Soil regeneration

Tests carried out over 30 years ago showed that soil could be rapidly regenerated by controlling the moisture level in the soil to encourage the right type of micro-biological action.

Today this technology is important as it captures atmospheric carbon and so can offset climate change. However it does require water to maintain the soil moisture levels - in a dry continent like Australia this presents a major challenge. Subsequently technologies such as improved irrigation scheduling, local water harvesting, subsurface irrigation and the wicking bed were developed for the more effective use of water.

see soil_regeneration

irrigation scheduling

Improved irrigation scheduling is the easiest and cheapest way of making more effective use of water. Traditionally scheduling has been a hit and miss affair which was marginally improved by using crop factors and evaporation data. However this is an open loop system with no in build feed back so significant water is still wasted. Here we look as closed loop systems taking advantages of improved instrumentation for soil and plant moisture monitoring to control irrigation depth

Subsurface and improved flood irrigation

Subsurface irrigation was initially seen as way of saving water lost by evaporation. A wide range of experiments however led to the conclusion that practical difficulties severely limit its application. The experimental focus was then switched to developing a computer simulation of flood irrigation to improve its efficiency.

Technically successful but with limited commercial uptake this was not regarded as a success but it did lead onto the highly successful wicking bed technology.

Local water harvesting

Australia is often considered to be a dry continent, in fact it has reasonable rainfall. The problem is excessive evaporation so much of the rain is lost by evaporation before it can be used by plants or captured in our dams.