Harnessing Microbes to Weather Native Silicates in Agricultural Soils for Scalable Carbon Dioxide Removal
- authored by
- Tania Timmermann, Christopher Yip, Yun Ya Yang, Kimberly A. Wemmer, Anupam Chowdhury, Daniel Dores, Taichi Takayama, Sharon Nademanee, Bjorn A. Traag, Kazem Zamanian, Bernardo González, Daniel O. Breecker, Noah Fierer, Eric W. Slessarev, Gonzalo A. Fuenzalida-Meriz
- Abstract
Anthropogenic carbon emissions contribute significantly to the greenhouse effect, resulting in global warming and climate change. Thus, addressing this critical issue requires innovative and comprehensive solutions. Silicate weathering moderates atmospheric CO2 levels over geological time, but it occurs too slowly to counteract anthropogenic emissions effectively. Here, we show that the microorganism Bacillus subtilis strain MP1 promotes silicate weathering across different experimental setups with various levels of complexity. First, we found that MP1 was able to form a robust biofilm in the presence of feldspar and significantly increased (p < 0.05) silicate dissolution rates, pH, and calcium carbonate formation in culture experiments. Second, in mesocosm experiments, we found that MP1 enhanced the silicate weathering rate in soil by more than six times compared to the untreated control. In addition, soil inorganic carbon increased by 20%, and the concentrations of ions, including calcium, magnesium, and iron, were also elevated under the MP1 treatment. More importantly, when applied as a seed treatment on eight soybean fields, we found that MP1 significantly (p < 0.05) boosted soil inorganic carbon, leading to a gross accrual of 2.02 tonnes of inorganic carbon per hectare annually. Our findings highlight the potential of enhancing native silicate weathering with microorganisms in agricultural fields to increase soil inorganic carbon, contributing to climate change mitigation.
- Organisation(s)
-
Soil Science Section
Section Soil Chemistry
Institute of Earth System Sciences
- External Organisation(s)
-
Aerotech, Inc.
Universidad Adolfo Ibanez
University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin)
University of Colorado Boulder
Yale University
- Type
- Article
- Journal
- Global change biology
- Volume
- 31
- ISSN
- 1354-1013
- Publication date
- 02.05.2025
- Publication status
- Published
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Global and Planetary Change, Environmental Chemistry, Ecology, General Environmental Science
- Sustainable Development Goals
- SDG 13 - Climate Action
- Electronic version(s)
-
https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70216 (Access:
Open)
