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Compost and Biochar Could Boost Carbon Sequestration by Crushed Rock

EOS - Tue, 04/22/2025 - 13:07

Source: AGU Advances

Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) is a proposed method of carbon dioxide sequestration that involves spreading crushed silicate minerals on soils to drive chemical reactions that form carbonate minerals: Essentially, the idea is to boost the natural process of rock weathering, in which carbon is transferred from the atmosphere into rocks. But few large-scale field studies of ERW exist, making it difficult to determine the technique’s practical feasibility and what factors might limit or enhance its success.

To address this knowledge gap, Anthony et al. conducted a 3-year, ecosystem-scale study to assess ERW in a California grassland environment, as well as the benefits of enhancing applications of crushed rock with organic additives.

The researchers spread finely crushed metabasaltic rocks across test plots in Browns Valley, Calif., in each of the 3 years. Along with the crushed rock, some of the applications included compost or a combination of compost and biochar (in this case, burned pine and fir left over from local logging). Other plots were treated with only compost, and a group of control plots received no treatment. Throughout the year, the team monitored each plot for levels of soil organic and inorganic carbon, pore water dissolved carbon, aboveground biomass, and greenhouse gas emissions.

The results showed that the rock-only plots sequestered only small amounts of carbon, though they helped reduce organic carbon losses compared with the control plots. Combining crushed rocks, compost, and biochar yielded the best results; in addition to sequestering carbon, the mixture both reduced nitrous oxide emissions and increased methane conversion, resulting in increased greenhouse gas mitigation overall.

The researchers estimate that if the combination of all three materials were expanded to cover 8% of California’s total rangelands, it could sequester up to 51.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year. However, that amount is about a quarter of the theoretical maximum for carbon sequestration from ERW in the area, according to the authors, indicating that achieving theoretical yields may be difficult in practice.

The authors note that their study took place during a drought, which may have decreased sequestration. They also point out that other “life cycle” emissions associated with ERW, such as those generated by producing, transporting, and applying treatments, must be factored into full assessments of the method’s impacts. (AGU Advances, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024AV001480, 2025)

—Nathaniel Scharping (@nathanielscharp), Science Writer

Citation: Scharping, N. (2025), Compost and biochar could boost carbon sequestration by crushed rock, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250083. Published on 22 April 2025. Text © 2025. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

The All-In-One Cyclone Identification Framework

EOS - Tue, 04/22/2025 - 12:00

Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors. Source: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres

A clear and consistent framework for the detection and classification of all cyclones — ranging from hurricanes and winter storms to monsoon-related events — is beneficial for the scientific research community because it can aid process-level understanding, enhance the efficiency of operational forecasting, and increase effective communication of risks. Ultimately, such a framework can safeguard lives and infrastructure.

Han and Ulrich [2025] present a novel detection and classification framework called the System for Classification of Low‐Pressure Systems (SyCLoPS). The authors use the data-driven framework to classify 16 different types of low-pressure systems across the world. SyCLoPS — a suitable designation based on the all-seeing Greek mythical Cyclops — is a fitting designation for a system designed to detect and track all kinds of storms, anywhere in the world.

SyCLoPS was used to identify more than 379 thousand distinct storm tracks through high-resolution global data sourced from the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasting’s global data product between 1979 to 2022. The author’s approach — the first to classify all low-pressure systems using a single global dataset — can be applied to any dataset that includes a basic set of atmospheric parameters, enabling consistent characterization and categorization of low-pressure systems. The implications are significant. Why? Because such a framework can use historical data to understand past trends and can be used to perform analysis of future projections, to improve understanding of likely changes.

Maintaining a consistent framework for the detection and classification of all cyclones is essential for improving understanding of how a warming climate may influence their frequency, landfall patterns, and impact zones. These changes could affect both densely populated urban areas and non-urban regions, including key agricultural zones that may become more vulnerable to storm activity. This study represents an important step toward building a unified framework for consistently identifying and linking past and future projections of storm systems.

Citation: Han, Y., & Ullrich, P. A. (2025). The system for classification of low-pressure systems (SyCLoPS): An all-in-one objective framework for large-scale data sets. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 130, e2024JD041287. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JD041287

—Matei Georgescu, Associate Editor, JGR: Atmospheres

Text © 2024. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
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Microplastics: What's trapping the emerging threat in our streams?

Phys.org: Earth science - Mon, 04/21/2025 - 20:18

Microplastics, tiny plastic particles found in everyday products from face wash to toothpaste, are an emerging threat to health and ecology, prompting a research team to identify what keeps them trapped in stream ecosystems.

NSF Cancels Hundreds of DEI and Disinformation Grants

EOS - Mon, 04/21/2025 - 19:59

body {background-color: #D2D1D5;} Research & Developments is a blog for brief updates that provide context for the flurry of news regarding law and policy changes that impact science and scientists today.

The National Science Foundation has cancelled hundreds of grants to researchers working on projects related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as misinformation and disinformation.

In a statement posted on its website, NSF director Sethuraman Panchanathan wrote that the agency’s efforts to promote the progress of science should not preference some people, such as women or those from underrepresented groups, over others.

“Research projects with more narrow impact limited to subgroups of people based on protected class or characteristics do not effectuate NSF priorities,” he wrote. “Awards that are not aligned with NSF’s priorities have been terminated, including but not limited to those on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and misinformation/disinformation.”

A post on the Department of Government Efficiency’s X account said NSF had cancelled 402 grants, worth $233 million.

Great work by @NSF canceling 402 wasteful DEI grants ($233M in savings), including $1M for “Antiracist Teacher Leadership for Statewide Transformation”.

See the NSF update below. Grant awards will be based on merit, competition, equal opportunity, and excellence. https://t.co/Zptp92uBkm

— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) April 19, 2025

Funding was cancelled for a range of projects including one studying efforts to limit the spread of inaccurate information online and another using community-based science to research the effects of extreme heat in racially and ethnically diverse communities.

I got an email yesterday afternoon that my NSF SPRF Postdoctoral Fellowship was terminated. My grant focused on testing interventions to address online misinformation and I was 8 months into a two year appointment.

— Maddy Jalbert (@maddyjalbert.bsky.social) 2025-04-19T16:43:38.391Z

The announcement follows a 21 January executive order from President Trump that ordered all executive departments and agencies to terminate all “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) or “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” (DEIA).”

I’m so angry & heart broken. My NSF CAREER grant was stolen today; dream project supporting science teachers/students as climate justice action researchers, tackling urban heat. Truly transformative, the culmination of my life’s work, we won’t stop, not in this climate crisis. Gonna fight like hell!

— Tammie Visintainer (@proftv.bsky.social) 2025-04-19T05:37:10.060Z

The NSF statement also cited President Trump’s 20 January executive order (one of 26 signed on his first day in office): Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship. “Under the guise of combatting ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation,’ the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens,” the order read.

Noam Ross, a computational researcher and the director of rOpenSci, and Scott Delaney, an epidemiologist at Harvard, created an Airtable form in which researchers can report their grant cancellations.

These updates are made possible through information from the scientific community. Do you have a story about how changes in law or policy are affecting scientists or research? Send us a tip at eos@agu.org. Text © 2025. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
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