Enhanced silicate weathering accelerates forest carbon sequestration by stimulating the soil mineral carbon pump

Enhanced silicate rock weathering (ERW) is an emerging strategy for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from the atmosphere to mitigate anthropogenic climate change. ERW aims at promoting soil inorganic carbon sequestration by accelerating geochemical weathering processes. Theoretically, ERW may also impact soil organic carbon (SOC), the largest carbon pool in terrestrial ecosystems, but experimental evidence for this is largely lacking. Here, we conducted a 2-year field experiment in tropical rubber plantations in the southeast of China to evaluate the effects of wollastonite powder additions (0, 0.25, and 0.5 kg m<sup>-2</sup>) on both soil organic and inorganic carbon at 0-10 cm depth. We found that ERW significantly increased the concentration of SOC and HCO<sub>3</sub> <sup>-</sup>, but the increases in SOC were four and eight times higher than that of HCO<sub>3</sub> <sup>-</sup> with low- and high-level wollastonite applications. ERW had positive effects on the accrual of organic carbon in mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM) and macroaggregate fractions, but not on particulate organic matter. Path analysis suggested that ERW increased MAOM mainly by increasing the release of Ca, Si, and Fe, and to a lesser extent by stimulating root growth and microbial-derived carbon inputs. Our study indicates that ERW with wollastonite can promote SOC sequestration in stable MOAM in surface soils through both the soil mineral carbon pump and microbial carbon pump. These effects may have been larger than the inorganic CDR during our experiment. We argue it is essential to account for the responses of SOC in the assessments of CDR by ERW.

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Publication Details

Journal
Global Change Biology
Published
2024-08-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17464
Citations
47
Primary Topic
CO2 Sequestration and Geologic Interactions
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
9.67

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article

Enhanced silicate weathering accelerates forest carbon sequestration by stimulating the soil mineral carbon pump

Guochen Li, Sara Vicca, Yunting Fang, Zhanqing Hao et al.
47 citations
Global Change Biology
CO2 Sequestration and Geologic Interactions
9.67
article

Enhanced silicate weathering accelerates forest carbon sequestration by stimulating the soil mineral carbon pump

Guochen Li, Sara Vicca, Yunting Fang, Zhanqing Hao, Boyuan Bi, Zuoqiang Yuan, Daniel S. Goll, Chenlu Li, David J. Beerling, Tongtong Xu, Qiong Chen, Chao Wang, Xing Wang, Hui Chen, Luxiang Lin
article en
47 citations

Abstract

Enhanced silicate rock weathering (ERW) is an emerging strategy for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from the atmosphere to mitigate anthropogenic climate change. ERW aims at promoting soil inorganic carbon sequestration by accelerating geochemical weathering processes. Theoretically, ERW may also impact soil organic carbon (SOC), the largest carbon pool in terrestrial ecosystems, but experimental evidence for this is largely lacking. Here, we conducted a 2-year field experiment in tropical rubber plantations in the southeast of China to evaluate the effects of wollastonite powder additions (0, 0.25, and 0.5 kg m<sup>-2</sup>) on both soil organic and inorganic carbon at 0-10 cm depth. We found that ERW significantly increased the concentration of SOC and HCO<sub>3</sub> <sup>-</sup>, but the increases in SOC were four and eight times higher than that of HCO<sub>3</sub> <sup>-</sup> with low- and high-level wollastonite applications. ERW had positive effects on the accrual of organic carbon in mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM) and macroaggregate fractions, but not on particulate organic matter. Path analysis suggested that ERW increased MAOM mainly by increasing the release of Ca, Si, and Fe, and to a lesser extent by stimulating root growth and microbial-derived carbon inputs. Our study indicates that ERW with wollastonite can promote SOC sequestration in stable MOAM in surface soils through both the soil mineral carbon pump and microbial carbon pump. These effects may have been larger than the inorganic CDR during our experiment. We argue it is essential to account for the responses of SOC in the assessments of CDR by ERW.

Global Change BiologyVol. 30(8)
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology (CN), University of Antwerp (BE), Northwestern Polytechnical University (CN), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (FR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR), Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (CN), Institute of Applied Ecology (CN), Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (FR), University of Sheffield (GB), Wageningen University & Research (NL)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yunnan Provincial Science and Technology Department, Department of Human Resources and Social Security of Shaanxi Province, Key Research and Development Projects of Shaanxi Province
Life in Land
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
CO2 Sequestration and Geologic Interactions
9.67
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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