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Climate change mitigation: potential benefits and pitfalls of enhanced rock weathering in tropical agriculture

Climate change mitigation: potential benefits and pitfalls of enhanced rock weathering in tropical agriculture
Climate change mitigation: potential benefits and pitfalls of enhanced rock weathering in tropical agriculture
Restricting future global temperature increase to 2°C or less requires the adoption of Negative Emissions Technologies for carbon capture and storage. We review the potential for deployment of enhanced weathering (EW), via the application of crushed reactive silicate rocks (such as basalt), on over 680 million hectares of tropical agricultural and tree plantations to offset fossil fuel CO2 emissions. Warm tropical climates and productive crops will substantially enhance weathering rates, with potential co-benefits including decreased soil acidification and increased phosphorus-supply promoting higher crop yields sparing forest for conservation, and reduced cultural eutrophication. Potential pitfalls include the impacts of mining operations on deforestation, producing the energy to crush and transport silicates, and the erosion of silicates into rivers and coral reefs that increase inorganic turbidity, sedimentation, and pH with unknown impacts for biodiversity. We identify nine priority research areas for untapping the potential of EW in the tropics, including effectiveness of tropical agriculture at EW for major crops in relation to particle sizes and soil types, impacts on human health, and effects on farmland, adjacent forest, and stream-water biodiversity.
1744-9561
Edwards, David
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Lim, Felix
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James, Rachael
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Pearce, Christopher
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Scholes, Julie
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Freckleton, Robert
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Beerling, David
2d3b3a81-4c04-4048-8f25-5438bb70fc1e
Edwards, David
ebbd4ed7-6348-45b7-92d3-98813fb8d7f1
Lim, Felix
c5d38e37-be9b-4364-bb4c-be66d29ee1f4
James, Rachael
79aa1d5c-675d-4ba3-85be-fb20798c02f4
Pearce, Christopher
d1521f61-7b4b-4131-9654-51ed5057a026
Scholes, Julie
3d89f83b-a087-4932-ac4b-25855185b35e
Freckleton, Robert
67864017-6932-416e-a090-ce551918e217
Beerling, David
2d3b3a81-4c04-4048-8f25-5438bb70fc1e

Edwards, David, Lim, Felix, James, Rachael, Pearce, Christopher, Scholes, Julie, Freckleton, Robert and Beerling, David (2017) Climate change mitigation: potential benefits and pitfalls of enhanced rock weathering in tropical agriculture. Biology Letters, 13 (4), [20160715]. (doi:10.1098/rsbl.2016.0715).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Restricting future global temperature increase to 2°C or less requires the adoption of Negative Emissions Technologies for carbon capture and storage. We review the potential for deployment of enhanced weathering (EW), via the application of crushed reactive silicate rocks (such as basalt), on over 680 million hectares of tropical agricultural and tree plantations to offset fossil fuel CO2 emissions. Warm tropical climates and productive crops will substantially enhance weathering rates, with potential co-benefits including decreased soil acidification and increased phosphorus-supply promoting higher crop yields sparing forest for conservation, and reduced cultural eutrophication. Potential pitfalls include the impacts of mining operations on deforestation, producing the energy to crush and transport silicates, and the erosion of silicates into rivers and coral reefs that increase inorganic turbidity, sedimentation, and pH with unknown impacts for biodiversity. We identify nine priority research areas for untapping the potential of EW in the tropics, including effectiveness of tropical agriculture at EW for major crops in relation to particle sizes and soil types, impacts on human health, and effects on farmland, adjacent forest, and stream-water biodiversity.

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Edwards et al. Accepted - Accepted Manuscript
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More information

e-pub ahead of print date: 5 April 2017
Published date: 5 April 2017
Organisations: Geochemistry, Marine Geoscience

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 407460
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/407460
ISSN: 1744-9561
PURE UUID: 95a31123-0f57-467e-877e-2f7d0ff8b9ac
ORCID for Rachael James: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-7402-2315

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Date deposited: 12 Apr 2017 01:03
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 05:15

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Contributors

Author: David Edwards
Author: Felix Lim
Author: Rachael James ORCID iD
Author: Christopher Pearce
Author: Julie Scholes
Author: Robert Freckleton
Author: David Beerling

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