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Preserving tropical soil organic matter at watershed level. A possible contribution of urban organic wastes

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Managing Organic Matter in Tropical Soils: Scope and Limitations

Part of the book series: Developments in Plant and Soil Sciences ((DPSS,volume 93))

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Abstract

The goal of this paper is to put the issue of preserving Soil Organic Matter (SOM) into a regional, urban-rural, context. In doing so, we apply the method of material flux analysis to a watershed in Boyacd in Colombia. We estimate the order of magnitude of the dry organic matter and carbon fluxes between the rural and urban parts of the region, including estimates on biomass growth, tillage, organic waste, and sewage. These estimates are used to derive potentials for carbon cycling between rural and urban areas. It is shown that (i) for the municipality of Tunja, the treated organic wastes produced in the urban area could add about 30% to the current carbon input into arable soils; (ii) to preserve the organic carbon content in soils in Tunja over the long-term, either, erosion control measures have to be implemented and/or the total treated urban organic wastes have to be concentrated on about 1/5 of the agricultural area. However, such an attempt has to consider the possible trade off between allocation needs (poor farmers on the hillside) and allocation costs (transportation and distribution costs).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Sciences, Chair of Resource and Waste Management, ETH Zürich, CH-8600, Dübendorf, Switzerland

    Claudia Binder

  2. Department of Environmental Sciences, Chair of Resource and Waste Management, ETH Zürich and EAWAG, CH-8600, Dübendorf, Switzerland

    Nikola Patzel

  3. Department of Environmental Sciences, Natural and Social Science Interface, ETH-Zentrum, HAD G16, Haldenbachstrasse 44, CH- 8092, Zürich, Switzerland

    Claudia Binder

Authors
  1. Claudia Binder
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  2. Nikola Patzel
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Claudia Binder .

Editor information

C. Martius H. Tiessen P. L. G. Vlek

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© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Binder, C., Patzel, N. (2001). Preserving tropical soil organic matter at watershed level. A possible contribution of urban organic wastes. In: Martius, C., Tiessen, H., Vlek, P.L.G. (eds) Managing Organic Matter in Tropical Soils: Scope and Limitations. Developments in Plant and Soil Sciences, vol 93. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2172-1_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2172-1_16

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5947-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-2172-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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