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Biofortification of crops with seven mineral elements often lacking in human diets – iron, zinc, copper, calcium, magnesium, selenium and iodine

Philip J White, Martin R Broadley Abstract The diets of over two-thirds of the world’s population lack one or more essential mineral elements. This can be remedied through dietary diversification, mineral supplementation, food fortification, or increasing the concentrations and/or bio- availability of mineral elements in produce (biofortification). This article reviews aspects of soil science, plant physiology and genetics underpinning crop biofortification strategies, as well as agronomic and genetic approaches currently taken to biofortify food crops with the mineral elements most commonly lacking in human diets: iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), ...

Farming with Crops and Rocks to Address Global Climate, Food and Soil Security

David J. Beerling, Jonathan R. Leake, Stephen P. Long, Julie D. Scholes, Jurriaan Ton, Paul N. Nelson, Michael Bird, Euripides Kantzas, Lyla L. Taylor, Binoy Sarkar, Mike Kelland, Evan DeLucia, Ilsa Kantola, Christoph Müller, Greg Rau & James Hansen Abstract The magnitude of future climate change could be moderated by immediately reducing the amount of CO2 entering the atmosphere as a result of energy generation and by adopting strategies that actively remove CO2 from it. Biogeochemical improvement of soils by adding crushed, fast-reacting silicate rocks to croplands is one such CO2-removal strategy. This approach has the potential to ...

Carbonate Precipitation in Artificial Soils as a Sink for Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

P.Renforth, D.A.C.Manning, E.Lopez-Capel Abstract Turnover of C in soils is the dominant flux in the global C cycle and is responsible for transporting 20 times the quantity of anthropogenic emissions each year. This paper investigates the potential for soils to be modified with Ca-rich materials (e.g. demolition waste or basic slag) to capture some of the transferred C as geologically stable CaCO3. To test this principal, artificial soil known to contain Ca-rich minerals (Ca silicates and portlandite) was analysed from two sites across NE England, UK. The results demonstrate an average C content of 30±15.3 Kg C m^-2 stored as CaCO3, ...

Agrogeology

This book offers a basic understanding of the geology of plant nutrients and provides information on processes that are involved in the release of nutrients from rocks to soils, for the growth of plants. The reader will become aware that ‘crops need rocks as nutrient stocks’. The reader will also find out more about the raw materials and processes necessary to make conventional and low-cost geological fertilizers and soil amendments, and on ways to utilize these geological resources directly or through processing. In addition, the reader will become sensitized on environmental issues related to the extraction of geological nutrient ...

Carbon Dioxide Mineralization Feasibility in the United States

Madalyn S. Blondes, Matthew D. Merrill, Steven T. Anderson, and Christina A. DeVera Abstract Geologic carbon dioxide (CO2) storage is one of many methods for stabilizing the increasing concentration of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere. The injection of CO2 in deep subsurface sedimentary reservoirs is the most commonly discussed method; however, the potential for CO2 leakage can create long-term stability concerns. This report discusses the feasibility of an alternative form of geologic CO2 storage: CO2 mineralization. In this method, CO2 reacts with rocks and minerals to form solid and stable carbonate rocks. New pilot projects and laboratory-b...

OVERVIEW OF FERTILIZERS IN BRAZIL: A JUSTIFICATION FOR STONEMEAL

The fertilizers production chain encompasses the different raw materials (phosphate rock, sulfur, potassium, and natural gas) needed to form the intermediate products (MAP, DAP, SSP, SST, etc.) which are combined to create NPK fertilizer. Due to its huge geodiversity, Brazil has significant phosphate deposits, but the same is not true in terms of its potassium, sulfur, and nitrogen (the latter two coming mainly from the petroleum and natural gas chain) deposits. This has led the country to rely on the expensive importation of these raw materials, which might jeopardize the competitiveness of Brazilian agribusiness. Through data on reserves, producti...

USE OF BLENDS OF SILICATE AGROMINERALS AS A K SOURCE FOR SOYBEAN CROPS

This study aimed to test the efficiency of blends of silicate agrominerals as K sources for soybean crops. The experiment was conducted in the surroundings of Embrapa Cerrados, Planaltina – DF (TN: city in the Midwest, Brazil), in two field areas with similar climate conditions and different soil types: a medium texture soil and a clay soil. The experiment was carried out in 6 random blocks, with the following treatments: syenite and biotite schist (silicate rocks), and potassium chloride (conventional fertilizer), in doses of 0 kg, 60 kg, 120 kg, 240 kg, and 480 kg of K2O ha-1. The soil was prepared and the treatments on each plot were manually ...

Fuzzy optimization model for enhanced weathering networks using industrial waste

Kathleen B. Aviso, Jui-Yuan Lee, Aristotle T. Ubando & Raymond R. Tan Abstract Enhanced weathering is a negative emissions technology based on the accelerated weathering of alkaline minerals. Such materials can be reduced to a fine powder and applied to land sinks to maximize the area exposed for reaction with rainwater and dissolved CO2. The carbon is captured in the form of bicarbonate ions in the runoff, which ultimately carries it to the ocean for virtually permanent sequestration. Enhanced weathering has been demonstrated in proof-of-concept laboratory and field tests, but scale-up to a level that delivers significant CO2 removal is still ...

Farming with crops and rocks to address global climate, food and soil security

David J. Beerling, Jonathan R. Leake, Stephen P. Long, Julie D. Scholes, Jurriaan Ton, Paul N. Nelson, Michael Bird, Euripides Kantzas, Lyla L. Taylor, Binoy Sarkar, Mike Kelland, Evan DeLucia, Ilsa Kantola, Christoph Müller, Greg Rau & James Hansen Abstract The magnitude of future climate change could be moderated by immediately reducing the amount of CO2 entering the atmosphere as a result of energy generation and by adopting strategies that actively remove CO2 from it. Biogeochemical improvement of soils by adding crushed, fast-reacting silicate rocks to croplands is one such CO2-removal strategy. This approach has the potential to improve ...

Mineral Sources of Potassium for Plant Nutrition

D.A.C. Manning Abstract Recently published assessments of nutrient budgets on a national basis have shown that K deficits for developing countries are so substantial that a doubling of world production of potash fertilisers would be required to balance inputs and offtake, simply to meet demands in Africa alone. The price of potassium fertiliser raw materials has increased by a factor of 4 during 2007–2009, approaching $1000 per tonne in some markets. Thus an annual investment of the order of US$5600 million is required to replenish soil K stocks in Africa. In this context it is appropriate to review current knowledge of alternative sources of ...