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Biochar-amended soil can further sorb atmospheric CO2 for more carbon sequestration
Summary
Researchers found that adding biochar to soil not only stores carbon but also helps the soil absorb additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through mineral reactions. While not directly about microplastics, biochar-amended soils could offer dual benefits by both sequestering carbon and potentially trapping microplastics, since biochar has been shown to adsorb plastic particles. This approach could address both climate change and plastic pollution in agricultural settings.
Input of biochar into soil is considered as an efficient technology for carbon sequestration. This work is aimed to explore if the extra sorption of carbon dioxide (CO2) exists in the biochar-amended soil, which has not yet received attention. Here we put biochar and mineral-rich biochar into soils to perform laboratory CO2 sorption experiments. Our results demonstrate that all biochar increased soil carbon storage and meanwhile further sorb CO2 for more carbon sequestration. The Ca or Mg originated in biochar could react with more CO2 and eventually be converted into inorganic carbonate minerals in the amended soil. Further, the country-level prediction showed that all cultivated top soils with biochar application in China could achieve 7.38–12.5 billion tons of carbon sequestration and an additional 0.34–2.66 billion tons of CO2 sorption. The results require us to take into consideration of both carbon sink and extra CO2 sorption in the assessment of biochar carbon sequestration potential in soil. Application of [5%] biochar to soil could sequester around 10 billion tons of carbon in China’s soils, according to laboratory sorption experiments with pristine soil and four different biochar applications.
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