Glomalin and Conservation in Humboldt County The 1996 discovery of the soil glue glomalin is changing our understanding of the impact of elevated carbon dioxide, while giving important clues to forest health, watersheds, revegetation, wildfire and carbon sequestration. Here I share what I have found so others may read and draw their own conclusions, and relate it to my own experience, Humboldt County issues and stories from the news.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

108.The Riparian Sponge * Bigger is Better 

From Rainwaterharvesting. Dr. Fisher also contributes to Waterforum. My comments are posted at the end.
iqbal zuberi wrote:Dear Dr Fisher and my friends,Thank you for the mail 'the Riparian Sponge - Bigger is Better'. Your observation is very correct and we hope the members will discuss this and try to create awareness on this issue.In most of the developing and less-developed countries the situation is very very critical. It is normal to consider riparian sponges as ' waste land '- greedy land grabbers and 'development-mongers' are leaving no efforts left to convert riparian sponges into housing estates and farmers into crop lands. We sadly see the last traces of waterbodies and floodplains - the lands with water, both seasonal and perennial, succumb in their hands. Our capital Dhaka is an ideal example, we are to face more floods for this but nobody cares.Legal efforts - half-hearted - by the governments and the weak movements of the environment groups are too small to deter the strong hands of the rich real estate and property developers. i would like to draw attention of all the members to come forward and create strong movement to draw attention of global bodies to save our riparian sponges. Sustainability depend on the health of the water bodies.M.I.Zuberi, university of Rajshahi, BangladeshRand Fisher wrote:While this forum is focused on collecting rainwater for domestic use, management of landscapes to protect, enhance, or restore full natural hydrologic function can be most valuable, essential in sustaining stream flow and water supplies, whether for domestic or ecological value and use. The Riparian Notes paper below describes the water capture and release value of the 'riparian sponge'.
Riparian NotesNote Number 5, March, 2004 Steve Nelle, NRCS, San Angelo, Texas
The Riparian Sponge * Bigger is Better
"There is no greater social or political or economic or biological
issue in Texas than water. Many folks have put their water hopes in such
grandiose plans as reservoirs, inter-basin transfers, pipeline projects, brush
control, desalinization and other such "solutions". Yet, there is another large
and mostly unrecognized source of water that can be developed in nearly any part
of the state.One of the attributes of a properly functioning riparian area is
the sponge effect and water storage capacity within the riparian area. This does
not refer to water storage in the creek channel itself, but water detention in
the land. This large absorbent sponge of riparian land will soak up, store, and
then slowly release water over a prolonged period. This riparian sponge can be
managed in a way to greatly increase and improve this storage or it can be
managed in a way to decrease and degrade water storage.The best example to
illustrate the riparian sponge effect is from Bear Creek in central Oregon (12
inches annual precipitation; 3500 feet in elevation). Veteran riparian
specialist Wayne Elmore has observed, measured, photographed and followed the
changes in this creek for the past 28 years. Prior to 1976, the area received no
specialized grazing management. As a result, the riparian vegetation was sparse
and inadequate. Creek banks were actively eroding and the channel was cutting
down. Flow was intermittent and no fish life could exist. During runoff events,
the volume of sediment was high. The size of the riparian sponge was only 3.8
acres per mile of stream and this sponge was storing less than 500,000 gallons
of water per mile * far below its potential.Following a change in grazing
management, including several years of rest, the riparian area began to respond.
In 1985, a specialized grazing plan was implemented to continue the recovery of
the area * both the uplands and the riparian area.By 1996, riparian vegetation
was full and thick. The riparian sponge had increased to 12 acres per mile and
this sponge was now storing 4,000,000 gallons of water per mile. The improved
riparian vegetation was now filtering and capturing sediment and the streambed
was raised by 2.5 feet. An 8 fold increase in water storage! Side benefits were
a return of perennial flow and the return of fish. The rancher has benefited
too, with a tremendous increase in riparian vegetation and greatly increased
grazing capacity. Now the vegetation is properly grazed in a sustainable manner
and riparian functions are maintained.Just think, 12 acre feet of water
(4,000,000 gallons) being stored in the banks and the riparian floodplain on
each mile of the creek. This water is absorbed during periods of runoff, stored
in the riparian sponge and then slowly released for continuous flow in between
runoff events. The shallow aquifer is being continually recharged. This natural
phenomenon can be duplicated on thousands and thousands of miles of creeks all
across Texas. While each creek is different, the principles of riparian
management and restoration work in Texas just as they do in Oregon and other
places. The key to building a bigger and better riparian sponge starts with the
right kinds and amounts of vegetation. If grazing is continuous or if livestock
are concentrating their grazing in the riparian area, a change in grazing
management is recommended. Fencing to create a separate riparian pasture can
alleviate these problems and allow appropriate management. In some cases, a
complete rest from grazing for a few years is recommended to jump-start the
recovery process. In other cases, a change in the timing and duration of grazing
is all that is needed to allow restoration to begin. Rest during most of the
growing season and light to moderate grazing during the dormant season will
allow recovery in many cases.Slowing the flow of water as it moves downhill and
keeping water on the land longer is the key to good land and water management.
Good stewardship by private landowners can be a critical link in helping solve
the water problems of Texas."

This is a really good article similar to my Our Shrinking Watersheds on my blog, Redwood Reader (. 3 in the April 25, 2004 archive. THis issue is the focus of my comcern as I have been restoring savaged creek land in steep, high rainfall area with a devastated landscape the result of logging, fire, road building and resulting landscape insults like debris toreents and slides and sedimentation in the creeks. We have seen revegetation work near miracles. How does this happen?The uplands are restored (riparian is immediatly adjacent to running water in Cal.)very convincingly by the fungal product glomalin, which conditions the soil to absorb water. Glomalin is a product of photosyntheseis discovered in 1996 at USDA Sustainable Ag labs in Beltsville. As trees sink roots deeper and further afield glomalin is produces and then sloughed off into the soil, conditioning it to hold water and air in the root zone. This area is destroyed by exposure to sun, wind and running water, soil compaction and interruption of its food supply. It is protected from natural precipitation by the canopy and duff layers. Glomalin probably acts as a regional soil glue in addition to a microscopic one, adding laandscape stability in highly sensitive areas. THis one little scientific discovery is going to change perceptions in a wide variety of land use issues and even is at the heart of sustainable urban development, wildlife conservation and carbon sequestration. It has alreadychanged the face of US agriculture, as more than a third of crop farmers have already switched to no-till methods that preserve and accumulate glomalin. However, field crops are a relatively isloated environment, and when we apply this principle to forests we are talking thousands of speciies of trees, plants and fungi. We get past this ibn the description of glomalin being a sheath around extending hyphae which sloughs off at the death of the hyphae, settling into a long life in the soil as a glue. A structural biological component is likely to cross many species barriers. Now all the information about forest biodiversity and mycorhizzia foound a place in the equation. So I started a blog to report this, including source articles and articles in the news that could benefit, or that glomalin could be illustrated with. I ahve gotten relatively little feedback. Farmers and grazers count on glomalin maintaining the tilith and productivity of their fields. THis is not the case whereforests produce water. Instead, the mechanical devices of the system, the trees, are removed, shrinking the riparian sponge in depth as well as area. My little stream at 100 inches a year (low estimate) takes in 2.7 million gallons a year per acre. Most all of this is runoff, but each year we retain a little more soil and my creek battered, into seasonality, has been running much clearer after major rain events, peak runoff is slowly decreasing and shaded areas are much cooler and damper than the exposed areas.. This is the problem with illegal logging and stripping for firewood in much of the third world. THe loss is counted in trees and dollars but it is actually in usable water sources prepared and defended by the trees. Lack of this insight is evident around the globe.Much of the development is beyond this already but still we have all the information we need to become truly sustainable. A wealth of information about the rising CO2 levels actually accelerating recovery in forests is extremely encouraging for those who see CO2 as a useful component of agriculture and restoration. Now you can see why a tree planter won the Peace Prize, even if the awarders don't fully understand. One day, glomalin will become general knowledge and we will move into a sustainable future. Funny thing about that too. If we don't voluntarily do this, conditions will degrade to the point we have no influence left, our methods will crumble, and natural revegetation cycles will go back to work with this very mechanism. I am posting for the edification of intersted parties in these global issues. Rich McGuiness
Posted by: Rich McGuiness / 3:15 PM
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