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| Hi Lon,
you have shared some interesting comments but some of the information is factually incorrect.
Many species of earthworms are native to North America. About half of the 35 species of earthworms currently found in IL soils are considered native.
Prairie vegetation arrived in IL around 8300 years ago during an extended hot dry period that lasted over 500 years.
IL's prairie soils began forming at this time. Our current temperature/moisture levels are thought to have started around 3000 years ago but most soils in IL are much older than this.
Carbon dating indicates that the average age of the stabilized fraction of soil C in the top 9" of the Morrow Plots at the U of Illinois is ~3000 years.
Some of this "stable" carbon is char but there are other important stabilization mechanisms that allow soil C to stick around for hundreds to thousands of years.
Joel
WIU Agriculture
Edited by jbgruver 8/7/2022 22:35
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Building organic matter
