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Increased yield and CO2 sequestration potential with the C4 cereal Sorghum bicolor cultivated in basaltic rock dust-amended agricultural soil

Increased yield and CO2 sequestration potential with the C4 cereal Sorghum bicolor cultivated in basaltic rock dust-amended agricultural soil
Increased yield and CO2 sequestration potential with the C4 cereal Sorghum bicolor cultivated in basaltic rock dust-amended agricultural soil
Land‐based enhanced rock weathering (ERW) is a biogeochemical carbon dioxide removal (CDR) strategy aiming to accelerate natural geological processes of carbon sequestration through application of crushed silicate rocks, such as basalt, to croplands and forested landscapes. However, the efficacy of the approach when undertaken with basalt, and its potential co‐benefits for agriculture, require experimental and field evaluation. Here we report that amending a UK clay‐loam agricultural soil with a high loading (10 kg/m2) of relatively coarse‐grained crushed basalt significantly increased the yield (21 ± 9.4%, SE ) of the important C4 cereal Sorghum bicolor under controlled environmental conditions, without accumulation of potentially toxic trace elements in the seeds. Yield increases resulted from the basalt treatment after 120 days without P‐ and K‐fertilizer addition. Shoot silicon concentrations also increased significantly (26 ± 5.4%, SE ), with potential benefits for crop resistance to biotic and abiotic stress. Elemental budgets indicate substantial release of base cations important for inorganic carbon removal and their accumulation mainly in the soil exchangeable pools. Geochemical reactive transport modelling, constrained by elemental budgets, indicated CO2 sequestration rates of 2–4 t CO2/ha, 1–5 years after a single application of basaltic rock dust, including via newly formed soil carbonate minerals whose long‐term fate requires assessment through field trials. This represents an approximately fourfold increase in carbon capture compared to control plant–soil systems without basalt. Our results build support for ERW deployment as a CDR technique compatible with spreading basalt powder on acidic loamy soils common across millions of hectares of western European and North American agriculture.
carbon removal, crop productivity, mineral weathering, negative emissions technology, reactive transport modelling, silicon, soil acidification
1354-1013
3658-3676
Kelland, Mike
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Wade, Peter
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Lewis, Amy
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Taylor, Lyla
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Sarkar, Binoy
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Andrews, M. Grace
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Lomas, Mark
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Cotton, Anne
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Kemp, Simon
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James, Rachael
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Pearce, Christopher
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Hartley, Sue
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Hodson, Mark
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Leake, Jonathan
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Banwart, Steve
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Beerling, David
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Kelland, Mike
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Wade, Peter
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Lewis, Amy
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Taylor, Lyla
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Sarkar, Binoy
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Andrews, M. Grace
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Lomas, Mark
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Cotton, Anne
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Kemp, Simon
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James, Rachael
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Pearce, Christopher
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Hartley, Sue
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Hodson, Mark
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Leake, Jonathan
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Banwart, Steve
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Beerling, David
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Kelland, Mike, Wade, Peter, Lewis, Amy, Taylor, Lyla, Sarkar, Binoy, Andrews, M. Grace, Lomas, Mark, Cotton, Anne, Kemp, Simon, James, Rachael, Pearce, Christopher, Hartley, Sue, Hodson, Mark, Leake, Jonathan, Banwart, Steve and Beerling, David (2020) Increased yield and CO2 sequestration potential with the C4 cereal Sorghum bicolor cultivated in basaltic rock dust-amended agricultural soil. Global Change Biology, 26 (6), 3658-3676. (doi:10.1111/gcb.15089).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Land‐based enhanced rock weathering (ERW) is a biogeochemical carbon dioxide removal (CDR) strategy aiming to accelerate natural geological processes of carbon sequestration through application of crushed silicate rocks, such as basalt, to croplands and forested landscapes. However, the efficacy of the approach when undertaken with basalt, and its potential co‐benefits for agriculture, require experimental and field evaluation. Here we report that amending a UK clay‐loam agricultural soil with a high loading (10 kg/m2) of relatively coarse‐grained crushed basalt significantly increased the yield (21 ± 9.4%, SE ) of the important C4 cereal Sorghum bicolor under controlled environmental conditions, without accumulation of potentially toxic trace elements in the seeds. Yield increases resulted from the basalt treatment after 120 days without P‐ and K‐fertilizer addition. Shoot silicon concentrations also increased significantly (26 ± 5.4%, SE ), with potential benefits for crop resistance to biotic and abiotic stress. Elemental budgets indicate substantial release of base cations important for inorganic carbon removal and their accumulation mainly in the soil exchangeable pools. Geochemical reactive transport modelling, constrained by elemental budgets, indicated CO2 sequestration rates of 2–4 t CO2/ha, 1–5 years after a single application of basaltic rock dust, including via newly formed soil carbonate minerals whose long‐term fate requires assessment through field trials. This represents an approximately fourfold increase in carbon capture compared to control plant–soil systems without basalt. Our results build support for ERW deployment as a CDR technique compatible with spreading basalt powder on acidic loamy soils common across millions of hectares of western European and North American agriculture.

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Increased yield and CO2 sequestration potential with the C4 cereal Sorghum bicolor cultivated in basaltic rock dust‐amended agricultural soil - Version of Record
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Accepted/In Press date: 12 March 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 21 April 2020
Published date: 1 June 2020
Additional Information: Funding Information: We thank Irene Johnson for technical support, Neil Bramall and Scott Young for analytical chemical analyses, Chris Hill for assisting with SEM measurements, Fiona Keay for undertaking the BET measurements, Gren Turner and Jeremy Rushton for assistance with the SEM-EDX analyses and interpretation, and Ian Mounteney for assistance with the XRD sample preparation. Oakbank Game and Conservation, Cambridgeshire, kindly provided Sorghum seeds. We thank Dr Alastair Leake for kindly granting permission to obtain soil from the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, Allerton Project farm. M.E.K. and A.L.L. were supported by NERC ACCE DTP studentships. S.J.K. publishes with the permission of the Executive Director, British Geological Survey (UKRI). We gratefully acknowledge funding of this research by the Leverhulme Trust through a Leverhulme Research Centre Award (RC-2015-029). Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Keywords: carbon removal, crop productivity, mineral weathering, negative emissions technology, reactive transport modelling, silicon, soil acidification

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 441080
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/441080
ISSN: 1354-1013
PURE UUID: 8e1973bb-ea65-49e9-919f-1b0958bf4a3e
ORCID for Rachael James: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-7402-2315

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Date deposited: 29 May 2020 16:31
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:13

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Contributors

Author: Mike Kelland
Author: Peter Wade
Author: Amy Lewis
Author: Lyla Taylor
Author: Binoy Sarkar
Author: M. Grace Andrews
Author: Mark Lomas
Author: Anne Cotton
Author: Simon Kemp
Author: Rachael James ORCID iD
Author: Christopher Pearce
Author: Sue Hartley
Author: Mark Hodson
Author: Jonathan Leake
Author: Steve Banwart
Author: David Beerling

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