Permaculture - quantified?

[Emma-Lou]

Hi there,

Just wondering if anyone can help me at all please?

I'm studying towards my Environemntal Sciences BSc in the UK, and for my final year research project I'm looking into whether certain permaculture techniques actually increase carbon sequestration over standard agricultural techniques; in particular the depth at which carbon is able to be sequestered.

Although I firmly believe that this happens, I have to find published papers that quantify and discuss it in order to meet scientific and university standards, so does anyone know of any actual research papers that have been publicised about this kind of thing at all? Or any quantifiable permaculture studdies at all.

Here's hoping!
Love and light
Emma

[ecodharmamark]

G'day Emma

Welcome to the PRI Forum.

In my experience, you are going to find it very hard to find (peer-reviewed) literature quantifying '...whether certain permaculture techniques actually increase carbon sequestration over standard agricultural techniques; in particular the depth at which carbon is able to be sequestered'.

I imagine you have probably already tried many different types of search formats (choice of search terms) in databases available to you. I just tried 'permaculture carbon sequestration' in a couple of our larger meta-databases and the result was zero.

I therefore suggest (and you may have already tried this) that you 'play around' with the search terms until you hit upon something that starts to provide positive responses. Terms such as 'alternative agriculture' in place of 'permaculture' might expand the response list.

Ultimately it will be you that has to define exactly what you mean by 'certain permaculture techniques', and expand on your thesis from there. For example, if you read P.A Yeomans' The Keyline Plan (1954), you will find a 'permaculture technique' that is widely practiced today, but at the time of its inception one that was simply defined by the author as 'a system of progressive fertile soil development ... [of which the] primary aim is the development of better soil structure, increased soil fertility and greater actual depth of fertile soil' (p. 13). No mention of 'permaculture' or 'carbon sequestration'. However, both it (Keyline ploughing) is and does, and does very well.

Good luck with your further research, and please let us know how it goes.

Cheerio, Markos.

[Grahame]

Yeah, I think personally that 'permaculture techniques' is a bit of a misnomer. To me permaculture is more about the integration of various techniques that could be also labelled under 'alternative' or 'organic' or any other label. I think it's the ethics and the principles that define permaculture. Many of the techniques labelled as belonging to permaculture were around long before permaculture started to claim them.

Science is a very compartmentalist approach to describing the world, which means you are going to be hard pressed to find scientific papers about a holistic systems approach.

Good luck

[chook-in-eire]

Emma, since there is a lot of overlap between agroforestry and some techniques that tend to be utilized in permaculture systems (e.g. forest gardens, contour hedgerows, use of N-fixing tree and shrub species, and generally going 'into the third plane') I'd take a look at
* Agroforestry for Soil Management, Edited by A Young, 1997
* Temperate Agroforestry Systems, Edited by A M Gordon, S M Newman, 1997
I have read both and they are excellent scientific publications.
Also there are:
* Agroforestry Abstracts, A fully searchable abstracts database of internationally published research on agroforestry. ww.agroforestry.ac.uk

And for more recent work the journal Agroforestry Systems http://www.springerlink.com/content/102842/?MUD=MP ,
Environmental Services of Agroforestry Systems http://www.amazon.com/Environmental-.../dp/1560221305

Also go to cabi.org and type Agroforestry into the search box.
Also, separately, type "carbon sequestration" into the search box. What jumps out at me is
* Grassland Productivity and Ecosystem Services, Edited by A Chabbi, J Hodgson, G Lemaire, October 2011
Again, larger-scale permaculture systems with livestock integration tend to employ a number of techniques aimed at improving grassland productivity. There is your link to "ecosystem services", one of which is carbon sequestration.
* Forests at the Land–Atmosphere Interface, Edited by J Grace, K McNaughton, M Mencuccini, J Moncrieff, December 2003 (covers topics such as stomatal functioning, large scale processes, radiation modelling, forest meteorology and carbon sequestration)

HTH

[Ludi]

Here is some data about carbon sequestration by trees: http://sustainability.tufts.edu/?pid=74

Various sequestration strategies including pastured livestock: http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/20100..._carbon_wallop

[Lumbuck Thornton]

Hi Emma,

Just a couple of observations on this that might interest you.

Generally if you are just comparing the growing of plants then there might not be that much difference but it is important to take in the wider picture.
Where has the seed come from? - Some GM warehouse or last seasons crop?
Where has the fertiliser come from? - Overseas and petroleum added or collected from animals, mulch crops and fallen leaves?
Where has the energy associated with the farming technique come from? - Hydrocarbons or muscle?
How far does the food have to travel before consumption? Vast distances or Zone 2 to Zone 1 or at the most a local Farmers Market.
What is the nutritional benefit of the food - weight for weight? Is it mostly water and flavourless?
What toxic residues, GM and other issues are there to consider?
What is the mindset of the consumer likely to be? - One with the planet and a sustainable society in mind or dollars and more environmental destruction in mind?

I reckon you might be trying to compare two very different things here and there is more to the carbon equation than just what is left in the soil!

Good question and good luck answering it !

Regards

Lumbuck

[chook-in-eire]

Just another thought: if you watch "Greening the Desert - the Sequel" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gPvs...eature=related you can see how in the swales what was basically dry dust has turned into relatively humus-rich soil. Perhaps you could ask PRI if anyone has published on this.