Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T13:10:49.394Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Biological enhancement of soil carbonate precipitation: passive removal of atmospheric CO2

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

D. A. C. Manning
D. A. C. Manning*
Affiliation:
Institute for Research on Environment and sustainability, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK
*
*E-mail: david.manning@ncl.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Soils are the dominant terrestrial sink for carbon, containing three times as much C as above-ground plant biomass, and acting as a host for both organic and inorganic C, as soil organic matter and pedogenic carbonates, respectively. This article reviews evidence for the generation within the soil solution of dissolved C derived from plants and recognition of its precipitation as carbonates. It then considers the potential value of this process for artificially-mediated CO2 sequestration within soils. The ability of crops such as wheat to produce organic acid anions as root exudates is substantial, generating 70 mol/(y kg) of exuded C, equivalent to the plant's own ‘body weight’. This is still an order of magnitude less than measured C production from Icelandic woodlands (Moulton et al., 2000), which have no other possible source of C. Thus, there is apparently no shortage of available dissolved C, as bicarbonate in solution, and so the formation of pedogenic carbonates will be controlled by the availability of Ca. This is derived from mineral weathering, primarily of silicate minerals (natural plagioclase feldspars and pyroxenes; artificial cement and slag minerals). Within the UK, existing industrial arisings of calcium silicate minerals from quarrying, demolition and steel manufacture that are fine-grained and suitable for incorporation into soils are sufficient to account for 3 MT CO2 per year, compensating for half of the emissions from UK cement manufacture. Pursuing these arguments, it is shown that soils have a role to play as passive agents in the removal of atmospheric CO2, analogous to the use of reed beds to clean contaminated waters.

Keywords

soilsCO2sequestrationCO2 removalcalcium silicatescarbonates
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 72 , Issue 2 , April 2008 , pp. 639 - 649
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andrews, J.A. and Schlesinger, W.H. (2001) Soil CO2dynamics, acidification, and chemical weathering in a temperate forest with experimental CO2 enrichment. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 15, 149–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Batjes, N.H. (1996) Total carbon and nitrogen in the soils of the world. European Journal of Soil Science, 47, 151–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowling, D.R., Pataki, D.E. and Randerson, J.T. (2008) Carbon isotopes in terrestrial ecosystem pools and CO2 fluxes. New Phytologist, 178, 28–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cerling, T.E. (1984) The stable isotopic composition of modern soil carbonate and its relationship to climate. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 71, 229–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drever, J.I. (1994) The effect of land plants on weathering rates of silicate minerals. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Ada, 58, 2325–2332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drever, J.I. (1997) The Geochemistry of Natural Waters, Third Edition: Surface and Groundwater Environments. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 436 pp.Google Scholar
Durand, N., Gunnell, Y., Curmi, P. and Ahmad, S.M. (2007) Pedogenic carbonates on Precambrian silicate rocks in South India: origin and paleoclimatic significance. Quaternary International, 162—163, 35–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gunal, H. and Ransom, M.D. (2006) Clay illuviation and calcium carbonate accumulation along a precipitation gradient in Kansas. Catena, 68, 59–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinsinger, P. (2001) Bioavailability of soil inorganic P in the rhizosphere as affected by root-induced chemical changes: a review. Plant and Soil, 237, 173–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinsinger, P., Plassard, C, Tang, C.X. and Jaillard, B. (2003) Origins of root-mediated pH changes in the rhizosphere and their responses to environmental constraints: a review. Plant and Soil, 248, 43–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoekenga, O.A., Maron, L.G., Pineros, M.A., Cancado, G.M.A., Shaff, J., Kobayashi, Y., Ryan, P.R., Dong, B., Delhaize, E., Sasaki, T., Matsumoto, H., Yamamoto, Y., Koyama, H. and Kochian, L.V. (2006) AtALMTl, which encodes a malate trans porter, is identified as one of several genes critical for aluminum tolerance in Arabidopsis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103, 9738–9743.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) (2007) Climate Change 2007: The Scientific Basis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 996 pp.Google Scholar
Jenny, H. (1980) The Soil Resource. Springer Verlag, New York, 377 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, D.L., Dennis, P.G., Owen, A.G. and van Hees, P.A.W. (2003) Organic acid behavior in soils — misconceptions and knowledge gaps. Plant and Soil, 248, 31–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, C, McConnell, C, Coleman, K, Cox, P., Falloon, P., Jenkinson, D. and Powlson, D. (2005) Global climate change and soil carbon stocks; predictions from two contrasting models for the turnover of organic carbon in soil. Global Change Biology, 11, 154–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalin, R.M., Dardis, G. and Lowndes, J. (1997) Secondary carbonates in the Antrim Basalts: geochemical weathering at 35 ky BP. Pp. 22–25 in: Geofluids II Conference: Extended Abstracts (J.P. Hendry, P.F. Carey, J. Parnell, A.H. Ruffell and Worden, R.H., editors). Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast.Google Scholar
Khalaf, S., Revel, J.C., Guiresse, M. and Kaemmerer, M. (2000) Some calcareous soils developed on recent Quaternary basalt in southeast Syria. Pp. 213–224 in: Global Climate Change and Pedogenic Carbonates (Lai, R., Kimble, J.M., Eswaran, H. and Stewart, B.A., editors). Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton.Google Scholar
Knorr, W., Prentice, I.C., House, J.I. and Holland, E.A. (2005) Long-term sensitivity of soil carbon turnover to warming. Nature, 433, 298–301.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuzyakov, Y. and Domanski, G. (2000) Carbon input by plants into the soil. Review. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, 163, 421–431.3.0.CO;2-R>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landi, A., Mermut, A.R. and Anderson, D.W. (2003) Origin and rate of pedogenic carbonate accumulation in Saskatchewan soils, Canada. Geoderma, 117, 143–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawson, N., Douglas, I., Garvin, S., McGrath, C, Manning, D.A.C. and Vetterlein, J. (2001) Recycling construction and demolition wastes — a UK perspective. Environmental Management and Health, 12, 146–157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, X., Monger, H.C. and Whitford, W.G. (2007) Calcium carbonate in termite galleries — biominer-alization or upward transport? Biogeochemistry, 82, 241–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manning, D.A.C. (2001) Calcite precipitation in landfills: an essential product of waste stabilization. Mineralogical Magazine, 65, 603–610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manning, D.A.C. (1997) Acetate and propionate in landfill leachates: Implications for the recognition of microbiological influences on the composition of waters in sedimentary systems. Geology, 25, 279–281.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manning, D.A.C, Gestsdottir, K and Rae, E.I.C. (1992) Feldspar dissolution in the presence of organic acid anions under diagenetic conditions: an experimental study. Organic Geochemistry, 19, 483–492.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manning, D.A.C, Lopez-Capel, E. and Barker, S. (2005) Seeing soil carbon: use of thermal analysis in the characterization of soil C reservoirs of differing stability. Mineralogical Magazine, 69, 425–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manning, D.A.C. and Robinson, N. (1999) Leachate-mineral reactions: implications for drainage system stability and clogging. Pp. 269–276 in: Proceedings of the 7th International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium, Sardinia (Christensen, T.H., Cossu, R. and Stegmann, R., editors). Sardinia Symposium, EuroWaste srl, Padova, Italy.Google Scholar
Marbut, CF. (1935) Soils of the United States, Atlas of American Agriculture, Part III, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Moulton, K.L., West, J. and Berner, R.A. (2000) Solute flux and mineral mass balance approaches to the quantification of plant effects on silicate weathering. American Journal of Science, 300, 539–570.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ODPM (2002) Survey of arisings and use of secondary materials as aggregates: main document, Annex 1 (via http://www.odpm.gov.uk).Google Scholar
ODPM (2003) Survey of arisings and use of construction, demolition and excavation waste as aggregate in England in 2003. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, ISBN 1 85112 7453, 127 pp.Google Scholar
Ragg, J.M., Smith, J., Muir, J.W. and Birse, EX. (1959) Soil Map of'Kelso (Sheet 25). 1:63360 Chessington: Ordnance Survey.Google Scholar
Ryan, P.R., Delhaize, E. and Jones, D.L. (2001) Function and mechanism of organic anion exudation from plant roots. Annual Reviews in Plant Physiology and Plant Molecular Biology, 52, 527–560.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salomons, W. and Mook, W.G. (1976) Isotope geochemistry of carbonate dissolution and repreci-pitation in soils. Soil Science, 122, 15–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salomons, W., Goudie, A. and Mook, W.G. (1978) Isotope composition of calcrete deposits from Europe, Africa and India. Earth Surface Processes, 3, 43–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salway, A.G., Murrells, T.P., Pye, S., Watterson, J. and Milne, R. (2001) Greenhouse Gas Inventories for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: 1990, 1995, 1998 and 1999. Report AEAT/R/ENV/ 0772 Issue 1, AEA Technology, Culham, Oxfordshire, UK.Google Scholar
Schlesinger, W.H. (1995) The formation of caliche in soils of the Mojave Desert, California. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Ada, 49, 57–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, P. (2004) Carbon sequestration in croplands: the potential in Europe and the global context. European Journal of Agronomy, 20, 229–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, P., Milne, R., Powlson, D.S., Smith, J.U., Falloon, P. and Cameron, K. (2005) Revised estimates of the carbon mitigation potential of UK agricultural land. Soil Use and Management, 16, 193–195.Google Scholar
Stevenson, B.A., Kelly, E.F., McDonald, E.V. and Busacca, A.J. (2005) The stable carbon isotope composition of soil organic carbon and pedogenic carbonates along a bioclimatic gradient in the Palouse region, Washington State, USA. Geoderma, 124, 37–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stolaroff, J.K., Lowry, G.V. and Keith, D.W. (2005) Using CaO- and MgO-rich industrial waste streams for carbon sequestration. Energy Conversion and Management, 46, 687–699.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Hees, P.A.W., Lundstrom, U.S. and Morth, C.-M. (2002) Dissolution of mieroeline and labradorite in a forest O horizon extract: the effect of naturally occurring organic acids. Chemical Geology, 189, 199–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Hees, P.A.W., Vinogradoff, S.I., Edwards, A.C., Godbold, D.L. and Jones, D.L. (2003) Low molecular weight organic acid adsorption in forest soils: effects on soil solution concentrations and biodegradation rates. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 35, 1015–1026.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Hees, P.A.W., Jones, D.L., Finlay, R., Godbold, D.L. and Lundstom, U.S. (2005) The carbon we do not see — the impact of low molecular weight compounds on carbon dynamics and respiration in forest soils: a review. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 37, 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woods, S., Mitchell, C.J., Harrison, D.J., Ghazireh, N. and Manning, D.A.C. (2004) Exploitation and use of quarry fines: a preliminary report. International Journal of Pavement Engineering and Asphalt Technology, 5, 54–62.Google Scholar