{"id":63971,"date":"2021-10-11T08:51:55","date_gmt":"2021-10-11T15:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=63971"},"modified":"2021-10-11T08:51:55","modified_gmt":"2021-10-11T15:51:55","slug":"dass-climate-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/dass-climate-research\/","title":{"rendered":"New research shows natural climate protection may be written in stone"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to reducing the\u00a0impact\u00a0of\u00a0climate change, humanity\u00a0appears\u00a0caught between a rock and hard place.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But,\u00a0in\u00a0this case,\u00a0the rock may offer a\u00a0surprisingly\u00a0softer landing.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The rocky surface of our planet\u2019s geology may provide a buffered bumper to absorb excess carbon\u2014that is, if society wants to protect it, according to a new paper co-authored by <\/span>Pawlok\u00a0Dass<\/span><\/b>, a postdoctoral scholar at Northern Arizona University, and published Oct. 11 in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles<\/em><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Benjamin Houlton<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0a\u00a0professor of ecology and evolutionary biology\u00a0at Cornell, led the study, along with\u00a0Dass\u00a0and researchers from\u00a0the University of California\u00a0at\u00a0Davis.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cExcess carbon is\u00a0already harming\u00a0people,\u00a0economies\u00a0and our planet,\u201d said\u00a0Houlton, the paper\u2019s\u00a0senior author.\u00a0\u201cBut we\u2019ve been enjoying a free subsidy provided by Earth\u2014a large carbon sink\u00a0on land and in the ocean\u2014and, as a society\u00a0we\u2019re not paying for the\u00a0carbon-sink\u00a0service explicitly.\u00a0But where is this sink and how long will it last?\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This research demonstrates that something as simple as rock-weathering reactions\u2014slowly releasing nitrogen once bound up in rocks, which nature has been doing long before humans\u2014delivers natural fertilizers around the world, allowing large areas of terrestrial habitat take up carbon dioxide.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, humanity has\u00a0been\u00a0pouring\u00a0carbon\u00a0dioxide\u00a0into the atmosphere.\u00a0However, land and its vegetation has been naturally drawing down\u00a0nearly\u00a0a quarter of it.\u00a0It was only in the late 1990s that scientists discovered this terrestrial carbon sink. With another quarter of the carbon dioxide going\u00a0into\u00a0the oceans,\u00a0the remaining\u00a0half\u00a0of\u00a0the carbon dioxide\u00a0remains in\u00a0the atmosphere\u00a0contributing to climate change.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re facing\u00a0incredible threats from climate change\u00a0and unless we find pathways to store\u00a0and sequester\u00a0carbon,\u00a0it will\u00a0get worse,\u201d Houlton said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Through the rest of the century, background nitrogen inputs from rock\u00a0weathering\u00a0and biological fixation\u00a0can\u00a0contribute\u00a0two to five\u00a0times more to terrestrial carbon uptake than\u00a0nitrogen pollution primarily from agricultural and industrial activities,\u00a0said the scientists,\u00a0looking at a\u00a0business-as-usual\u00a0scenario.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPreviously,\u00a0we\u00a0believed\u00a0that this\u00a0terrestrial\u00a0carbon sink was more vulnerable,\u201d said\u00a0Dass,\u00a0who was\u00a0formerly\u00a0in Houlton\u2019s laboratory at\u00a0the University of California, Davis, where Houlton\u00a0conducted the research before coming to Cornell.\u00a0\u201cNow we’re suggesting that\u00a0because of the previously undiscovered slow-release nitrogen,\u00a0the\u00a0terrestrial carbon sink\u00a0will\u00a0continue\u00a0to be robust.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Still,\u00a0society\u00a0should\u00a0not\u00a0lower\u00a0its guard, as fossil fuel\u00a0use\u00a0tends\u00a0to add excess nitrogen\u00a0to the atmosphere,\u00a0which,\u00a0instead of acting as a fertilizer,\u00a0bypasses\u00a0terrestrial carbon cycles\u00a0and\u00a0in turn\u00a0pollutes\u00a0downstream water bodies.\u00a0Abating\u00a0such excess\u00a0nitrogen pollution\u00a0can boost human\u00a0health, environment\u00a0and the economy, Dass said,\u00a0<\/span>without jeopardizing\u00a0natural terrestrial carbon sinks.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To preserve carbon sinks, we need to conserve\u00a0places\u00a0where\u00a0rock nitrogen weathering or biological nitrogen fixation\u00a0is strong\u2014such as\u00a0the\u00a0biologically diverse tropical forests, mountainous regions and the rapidly changing boreal zone\u00a0(the\u00a0entire stretch of\u00a0forest\u00a0running\u00a0from\u00a0Alaska\u00a0to Canada to Siberia, for example).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur work suggests\u00a0that the conservation of these ecosystems,\u00a0which have\u00a0built-in\u00a0capacity to absorb\u00a0carbon dioxide,\u00a0is going to be vital to making sure that we don\u2019t lose out on\u00a0Earth\u2019s\u00a0terrestrial carbon sink\u00a0service in the future,\u201d\u00a0Houlton said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to\u00a0Dass\u00a0and Houlton on the research, \u201cBedrock Weathering Controls on Terrestrial Carbon-Nitrogen-Climate Interactions,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>LINK<\/span>\u00a0the\u00a0other\u00a0researchers include\u00a0Yingping\u00a0Wang, of\u00a0the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research\u00a0Organisation\u00a0(CSIRO)\u00a0Oceans and Atmosphere, Australia;\u00a0David\u00a0Warlind,\u00a0Lund University, Sweden; and\u00a0Scott Morford, University of Montana, Missoula.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Funding for this research was provided by the NSF.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to reducing the\u00a0impact\u00a0of\u00a0climate change, humanity\u00a0appears\u00a0caught between a rock and hard place.\u00a0\u00a0 But,\u00a0in\u00a0this case,\u00a0the rock may offer a\u00a0surprisingly\u00a0softer landing.\u00a0 The rocky surface of our planet\u2019s geology may provide a buffered bumper to absorb excess carbon\u2014that is, if society wants to protect it, according to a new paper co-authored by Pawlok\u00a0Dass, a postdoctoral scholar…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":63979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}