Potential of global croplands and bioenergy crops for climate change mitigation through deployment for enhanced weathering

Ilsa B. Kantola, Michael D. Masters, David J. Beerling, Stephen P. Long and Evan H. DeLucia Abstract Conventional row crop agriculture for both food and fuel is a source of carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) to the atmosphere, and intensifying production on agricultural land increases the potential for soil C loss and soil acidification due to fertilizer use. Enhanced weathering (EW) in agricultural soils—applying crushed silicate rock as a soil amendment—is a method for combating global climate change while increasing nutrient availability to plants. EW uses land that is already producing food and fuel to sequester carbon (C), and ...