3775-year-old wood burial supports “wood vaulting” as a durable carbon removal method
Six-times more carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) is removed each year by terrestrial photosynthesis than fossil fuel emissions. However, the carbon is mostly returned to the atmosphere by decomposition. We found a 3775-year-old ancient wood log buried 2 meters belowground that was preserved far beyond its expected lifetime. The wood had near-perfect preservation, with carbon loss less than 5% compared to a modern sample. The lack of decay is likely due to the low permeability of the compact clay soil at the burial site. Our observation suggests a hybrid nature-engineering approach for carbon removal by burying woody biomass in similar anoxic environments. We estimate a global sequestration potential of up to 10 gigatonnes CO<sub>2</sub> per year with existing technology at a low cost of $30 to $100 per tonne after optimization.
Authors
- Taotao Meng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3198-3076)
- Bryson Callie Clifford (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0833-043X)
- Laura Picard
- Xinpeng Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9522-6170)
- Ning Zeng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7489-7629)
- Liangbing Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9456-9315)
- He Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-6035-0430)
- Yu Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9358-6906)
- Ghislain Poisson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-5961-7550)
- Elisa Zeng-Mariotti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-1298-7580)
- Ben Zaitchik
Institutions
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (US)
- Ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation (CA)
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2024-09-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adm8133
- Citations
- 20
- Primary Topic
- Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 5.65