Soil Science

One of the persistent questions about biochar as a carbon removal pathway is permanence. Spread charred biomass on a field — does it actually stay there? A new study published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems provides some of the longest field data yet: a single biochar application in 2013 still shows significant soil carbon and pH benefits ten years later. The Study Researchers tracked biochar applied once at rates of 11.2, 22.4, and 44.8 tonnes per hectare on dryland wheat fields in eastern Oregon. No reapplication over the entire decade. They measured soil organic carbon (SOC), pH, labile carbon, cation exchange capacity, and nutrient dynamics. ...

A new study from Cornell’s Chuan Liao and colleagues, published in Nature Communications Sustainability, models what enhanced rock weathering (ERW) could actually achieve under realistic adoption scenarios. The headline: 700 million to 1.1 billion tonnes of CO₂ per year by 2100. That’s less than half the theoretical ceiling of 5 Gt/yr that earlier studies floated. But it’s still enormous — roughly 2–3% of current global emissions, achieved by spreading crushed basalt on existing farmland. ...