Stan Moore notes -- this area is outside my personal expertise and it may very well be that lack of toxicity is not the only relevant chemical dynamic for styrofoam as a soil treatment, as others have stated. And this paper is forty years old and a body of evidency may now contradict it's very limited findings, which dealth with conditions in the southwestern U.S., where moisture regimes are no doubt very different from many other locales in the U.S. But it is seems worth reviewing this for what it is. And then, the impacts on birds are another issue. If styrofoam caused starvation in gannets that ingested it, but not in domestic chickens, I don't know what to think about impacts on various sparrows, for instance ...
Stan Moore San Geronimo, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED] COMPARISON OF MATERIALS FOR REDUCING EVAPORATION OF SOIL MOISTURE IN WATER EFFICIENCY STUDIES DOBRENZ, AK; COLE, DF; JOY, RJ AGRONOMY JOURN, VOL 60, P 446, JULY-AUG, 1968. 1 P, 1 FIG, 6 REF. THIS STUDY TESTED THE ABILITY OF SEVERAL MATERIALS TO REDUCE EVAPORATION OF SOIL MOISTURE FROM 4.2 LITER SIZE CANS IN WHICH MULTI-STEMMED, TILLERING PLANTS WERE BEING TESTED FOR WATER EFFICIENCY IN A GROWTH CHAMBER PROGRAMMED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS OF THE SOUTHWESTERN U.S. COARSE STYROFOAM REDUCED EVAPORATION BY 78%, WHICH WAS SIGNIFICANTLY GREATER THAN THE OTHER SIX MATERIALS (FINE STYROFOAM, PEA GRAVEL, 20-MESH SAND, PERLITE, VERMICULITE AND BARE SOIL). COARSE STYROFOAM IS NON-TOXIC, PERMEABLE, LIGHT WEIGHT, AND EASY TO APPLY. (SHERBROOKE-ARIZ) Descriptors: *EVAPORATION CONTROL; SOIL SEALANTS; SURFACE SEALING; ARID CLIMATES; PERLITE; GROWTH CHAMBERS; SOIL-WATER-PLANT RELATIONSHIPS; SOUTHWEST U.S; *WATER EFFICIENCY STUDIES; *STYROFOAM; VERMICULITE; PEA GRAVEL; 20-MESH SAND
