Tons Of Carbon Research Articles

Mountains in Oman Can Store Huge Amounts of CO2 if a Way Can Be Found Into the Tight Rock

Every year, the unusual mix of minerals in the Hajar Mountains near the coast of Oman traps 100,000 tons of carbon in the rock. That estimate is a tiny fraction of the potential of the mountain range and a few others like it in the world. Based on decades of work by geologists studying this unique formation—known as the Samail Ophiolite—the highly reactive rocks called peridotites can theoretically trap one-half ton of CO2 per ton of that rock in the Hajar Mountains, which extend into the UAE. A leading voice among the researchers who made the 100,000-ton estimate and developed ideas for removing trillions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere is Peter Kelemen, a professor at Columbia University in New York City. In a 2019 story in Scientific American, Kelemen said that if it is possible to speed the pace of mineralization “by a factor of a million”—something he thinks is doable with a bit of engineering—“then you end up with a billion tons of CO2 per cubic kilometer of rock per year.” That potential inspired an Omani entrepreneur, Talal Hasan, to start a company based on the work of Kelemen and colleagues including Juerg Matter, a geochemist now working at the University of Southampton in England. The result was startup 44.01, named for the molecular mass of carbon, where Kelemen serves as an advisor and Matter works part time. The company’s website describes its plan: “Carbon mineralization in peridotite is happening all the time—we simply speed up the natural process.” It is a simple-sounding goal. But what it will take to realize the vast potential is anything but simple. In an interview, Kelemen identified why: “The main concern is that the rocks are not very porous.” Or very permeable, which helps explain why large amounts of highly reactive elements have remained untouched over the 96 million years these reactive minerals have been on land. The hard rocks in this formation, particularly magnesium-rich olivine, were produced when magma flowed up from the mantle to a mid-ocean ridge where it cooled and the thick layer of rock spread out toward what is now Oman and the UAE, and something extraordinary happened. When it reached the boundary between two plates, it normally would have returned to the depths of the earth. Instead, it collided with another ophioplite and was ultimately thrust up onto land. When the theory of plate tectonics transformed geological thinking during the second half of the 20th century, this giant anomaly became a destination for geologists eager to study a rare outcrop of rock from the mantle, including Kelemen. They also could have gone to New Guinea to look at a similar display of mantle rock or scattered sites in the western US, among other places, where ophiolites are present. But the Hajar Mountains comprise the biggest ophiolite of them all. Speeding carbon mineralization from geological rates to the pace needed to help stop global warming poses a fundamental problem common to unconventional oil and gas—creating flow paths in tight rock on a limited budget.

The water and carbon footprint of cryptocurrencies and conventional currencies

When compared to traditional fiat currencies, cryptocurrencies represent a small, but growing, fraction of financial transactions. The rapid growth of cryptocurrencies has raised concerns regarding the environmental impact of this energy-intensive type of currency. In this study, water and carbon footprints associated with cryptocurrencies are assessed. These environmental footprints are then compared to the water and carbon footprints associated with conventional currencies, which is a novelty of this study. A spatially refined, bottom-up analysis of the most energy-intensive aspects of each financial system is used in the comparison of these systems. Specifically, the energy use for printing money, bank branches, automated teller machines (ATM), and cashless transactions is evaluated at the country level and compared to the energy use of crypto mining around the world. Cryptocurrencies’ electricity use of 236 × 106 megawatt hours (MWh) in 2021 surpassed that of the conventional transaction system, despite cryptocurrencies representing less than 0.5% of global cashless financial transactions. In terms of its water footprint, cryptocurrencies have an annual water consumption of 3670 × 106 cubic meters (m3). Cryptocurrencies' water footprint is more than double that of conventional currencies because crypto mining takes place in countries with higher water intensities for electricity. Crypto mining activities are also estimated to result in almost 139 × 106 tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-eq) of global greenhouse gas emissions. While cryptocurrencies represent a small percentage of financial transactions, their environmental impact is much larger than the conventional financial transaction system. This study shows how regulatory changes, such as the 2021 crypto mining ban in China, and crypto mining location can have implications on the environmental footprint associated with cryptocurrency.

Rubisco Function, Evolution, and Engineering.

Carbon fixation is the process by which CO2 is converted from a gas into biomass. The Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle (CBB) is the dominant carbon-consuming pathway on Earth, driving >99.5% of the ∼120 billion tons of carbon that are converted to sugar by plants, algae, and cyanobacteria. The carboxylase enzyme in the CBB, ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (rubisco), fixes one CO2 molecule per turn of the cycle into bioavailable sugars. Despite being critical to the assimilation of carbon, rubisco's kinetic rate is not very fast, limiting flux through the pathway. This bottleneck presents a paradox: Why has rubisco not evolved to be a better catalyst? Many hypothesize that the catalytic mechanism of rubisco is subject to one or more trade-offs and that rubisco variants have been optimized for their native physiological environment. Here, we review the evolution and biochemistry of rubisco through the lens of structure and mechanism in order to understand what trade-offs limit its improvement. We also review the many attempts to improve rubisco itself and thereby promote plant growth.

CONTRIBUTION OF URBAN CEMETERIES TO ECOSYSTEM SERVICES: EVIDENCE FROM TOURISTIC ANTALYA CITY OF TURKEY

Abstract. This study focuses on concretely determining the contribution of cemeteries to the urban ecosystems in Antalya, one of the most important tourism destinations of Turkey. The study covers three cemeteries (Andızlı, Arapsuyu, and Uncalı Cemeteries) located in the city center of Antalya, with an area of 14.02 ha, 5.12 ha, and 22.96 ha, respectively. These areas are classified into two classes as vegetation and non-vegetation to calculate ecosystem services with open access and user-friendly i-Tree Canopy software to calculate the contribution of green areas in the mentioned cemeteries to the regulatory services of the ecosystem. According to the results, the green cover in the Andızlı Cemetery constitutes 81.64% of the total cemetery area and holds 54.35 tons of carbon per year. In terms of combating air pollution, it has been determined that the cemetery contributes to ecosystem services by removing a total of 1085.60 kilos of CO, NO2, O3, SO2, and PM annually. Similarly, with its 4.88% impermeable buildings, 2.93% other impermeable surfaces, 18.55% soil ground, and 73.63% vegetation, the green cover of Arapsuyu Cemetery captures 357.96 kg of pollutants per year. Lastly, Uncalı Cemetery was shown to remove 1466.01 kg of air pollutants and 73.40 tons of carbon. Cemeteries that are part of the green infrastructure system and its contributions to ecosystem services are emphasized among the proposals to be made in line with the 2050 targets of the European Green Deal. In this context, by making legal and administrative additions to the spatial planning throughout the city, the realization of this intention might be accelerated.

State of forest fund and planning in forestry

State of forest fund and planning in forestry

Urbanization associated changes in biogeochemical cycles.

Urbanization associated changes in biogeochemical cycles.

Record-high CO2 emissions from boreal fires in 2021.

Extreme wildfires are becoming more common and increasingly affecting Earth's climate. Wildfires in boreal forests have attracted much less attention than those in tropical forests, although boreal forests are one of the most extensive biomes on Earth and are experiencing the fastest warming. We used a satellite-based atmospheric inversion system to monitor fire emissions in boreal forests. Wildfires are rapidly expanding into boreal forests with emerging warmer and drier fire seasons. Boreal fires, typically accounting for 10% of global fire carbon dioxide emissions, contributed 23% (0.48 billion metric tons of carbon) in 2021, by far the highest fraction since 2000. 2021 was an abnormal year because North American and Eurasian boreal forests synchronously experienced their greatest water deficit. Increasing numbers of extreme boreal fires and stronger climate-fire feedbacks challenge climate mitigation efforts.

Green Space Ecosystem Services and Value Evaluation of Three-Dimensional Roads for Sustainable Cities

The provision of green space as a result of three-dimensional roads plays a crucial role in maintaining the sustainability of the urban ecosystem. It does so by solving environmental problems and offering various ecosystem services to city residents. This study focuses on the park section of an expressway located between Bundang and Suseo in Seongnam city, South Korea, and quantifies the improvement in air quality and ecological value following the transformation of the road into green infrastructure. The goal is to determine the feasibility of sustainable green infrastructure for roads. The new park area on the road is approximately 83,000 sq. meters and there are approximately 3349 trees planted in the park. These trees can store 77.68 metric tons of carbon annually, isolate 13.21 metric tons of total carbon, remove 70.446 kg of air pollutants, avoid 112.8 cubic meters of emissions, and mitigate 31,983.90 cubic feet of emissions. The resulting economic value is approximately 874,494 dollars. Road green infrastructure conversion can be a useful solution to respond to environmental problems. To promote decision-making when developing policies, a process of pre-verification with quantified data of ecosystem services (example: air quality benefits, etc.) of trees using the i-Tree Eco program is required. In the execution stage, it is possible to understand the structure, function, and value of green spaces and prepare guidelines for tree selection, design alternatives, and evaluation as one of the management strategies for green spaces to improve the value of ecosystem services.

Decarbonization of tropical city using digital twin technology: case study of Bertam city

The urban population in Malaysia has increased to 77.7% in 2021, from 66% two decades ago, of which the current percentage shows Malaysia has more than 25 million city dwellers out of the 32.7 million total population. This statistic resulted in 80% of carbon emissions, roughly 200 million tCO2e, being produced by the urban cities in Malaysia. To balance out the high number of carbon emissions from urban settings, our government has aimed to reduce 33% of carbon by 2030, aligning with the COP commitment by Malaysia in 2021, and later aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050. Carbon neutrality can be achieved by using digital twin technology, which can virtually represent any physical system, including a whole city to its real-world counterpart. Bertam, a city in Pulau Pinang is used as a case study in this study. A baseline simulation has been made of the digital twin city, resulting in 253 kWh/m2 of total energy consumption in 2021, and 1.75 tonnes of carbon per capita. The recent applications of active and passive design strategies will be applied to the virtual city, to obtain its potential energy savings and carbon reduction data. At the end of the study, the digital twin technology will discover the city’s potential energy savings and carbon reduction after the optimization.

Electroslag heating and additional melt feed of steel ingots of semi-continuous casting

The issues related to the continuous compensation of metal shrinkage during its crystallization are studied. Based on the evaluation of ways to reduce the size of the shrinkage shell, aimed at maintaining the liquid phase for a long time, the most effective ways to reduce the size of the shrinkage shell and reduce the head trim are selected. The influence of electroslag heating and recharge technology on the length of the shrinkage shell and the quality of the metal of the sub-shrinkage area of semi-continuously cast ingots has been studied. The study was carried out on ingots with a diameter of 500 mm weighing 3.5 tons of carbon and alloy steels. The installation consisted of 3 electrodes with a diameter of 75–100 mm, connected to the transformer TSH-3000-3. The transformer power was 570 kVA, the current per phase was 1000–3000 A, the voltage on the electrodes was 40–60 V. Temperature measurements were carried out in the copper sleeve of the mold. For comparison, the temperatures in the walls of the mold were recorded during the cooling of the ingot in the mold without heating. The cooling curves showed that the process of electroslag heating does not cause overheating of the mold walls. This is explained by the appearance of a side metal crust in the upper part of the ingot, which does not melt with liquid slag and protects the walls of the mold. The surface of the ingots had no visible defects (crust inversions, film and slag inclusions). Additional surface treatment (stripping, stripping) was not required. The macrostructure of the ingots is dense, without visible defects, including in the axial zone. Sulfur liquation on sulfur prints according to Bauman was not detected. Electroslag heating had a significant impact on the length and shape of the shrinkage shell. The results obtained show that electroslag heating with graphite electrodes, feeding with consumable steel electrodes of the same composition with the resulting ingot and electroslag casting of steel can improve the structure, density and chemical homogeneity of cast metal, reduce the content of non-metallic and gas inclusions and significantly increase the yield of usable compared to conventional casting.

Seasonal carbon accumulation by groundcover in the Central Siberian subtaiga forest-steppe zone

The research is dedicated to comparing the above ground living vegetation carbon stock in various site conditions. The study was carried out in the Karaul'noe forestry located near Krasnoyarsk, Russia. We placed the research plots in stands of varying density (0.34-1.06) and landforms. Seven research plots are of the closed type (the groundcover develop under the canopy) and three research plots are of the open type (the bank of the Yenisei River, hayfield, area under power lines). Open (forestless) plots (the bank of the Yenisei River, hayfield, area under power lines) and pine forests with forest floor dominated by ferns/tall grasses were of the maximum above ground living vegetation carbon stocks values (from 2.01 to 2.46 tonnes of carbon per ha). A significant carbon sequestration was observed in the pine forest of lingonberry/moss type (1.58 tonnes of carbon per ha) since the moss layer makes a significant contribution to the groundcover carbon accumulation.

Oil Palm Plantation: Carbon Sequestration Potential and Effective carbon Management within Serchhip, Mizoram, India

Sustainable management of crop plantations to sequester more carbon is a timely strategy to reduce greenhouse gases, as these have been considered to be potent measures for mitigation of climate change. Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is a proven carbon-sequestering perennial crop by biological means, aiding in the mitigation of global warming and climatic fluctuations. The present study was carried out in Serchhip, Mizoram, India from 5th February to 30th March 2021. All major palm plantation sites located within Serchhip were determined in the study. The carbon store was determined from sample plants of three, six, eight, and ten years. This research adopts a destructive approach to estimate the amount of carbon storage. The investigator surveyed the number of trees and the age of the palm trees with the help of farmers. The results indicates that the trunk stores the largest amount of carbon when compared with other plant parts. However, in a three-year plantation, the fronds store more carbon than the trunk. The study reveals that the amount of carbon sequestered by four, six, eight, and ten-year palm trees were 0.045 t, 0.098 t, 0.276 t and 0.539 t respectively. The total sample surveyed was 1015 standing trees from eight locations, and the carbon stock potential accounting all plantations site within Serchhip was estimated to be 345.1 t/yr. Recently, many farmers are planning of giving up oil palm farming and are likely to replace their oil palm fields with other crops. Uprooting, slashing, and burning is the common practice adopted to clear palm trees, which is believed detrimentally to emit tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere. Therefore, the study will be very helpful in decision-making and, consequently selecting a wiser choice for climate change mitigation within Serchhip and, to a larger extent, Mizoram.

Calling time on the imperial lawn and the imperative for greenhouse gas mitigation

Non-technical summaryAs green spaces, lawns are often thought to capture carbon from the atmosphere. However, once mowing, fertlising and irrigation are taken into account, we show that they become carbon sources, at least in the long run. Converting unused urban and rural lawn and grassland to treescapes can make a substantial contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing carbon absorption from the atmosphere. However, it is imperative for governing bodies to put in place appropriate policies and incentives in order to achieve this.Technical summaryMown grass or lawn is a ubiquitous form of vegetation in human-dominated landscapes and it is often claimed to perform an ecosystem service by sequestering soil carbon. If lawn maintenance is included, however, we show that lawns become net carbon emitters. We estimate that globally, if one-third of mown grass in cities was returned to treescapes, 310–1630 million tonnes of carbon could be absorbed from the atmosphere, and up to 43 tonnes of carbon equivalent per hectare of emissions could be avoided over a two-decade time span. We therefore propose that local and central governments introduce policies to incentivise and/or regulate the conversion of underutilised grass into treescapes.Social media summaryIf unused lawns were planted with trees, a gigaton of carbon could be removed from the atmosphere over two decades.

Carbon accounting without life cycle analysis

Carbon accounting without life cycle analysis (LCA) is possible by requiring one ton of sequestration for each extracted ton of carbon. A carbon takeback obligation eliminates the need to track carbon through the supply chain.

EXPLORING THE POTENTIALS OF COMMUNITY GARDENS AS GREEN SPACE ON VACANT LAND IN KHULNA CITY

Community garden (CG) is a form of urban green space. It provides social, economic, health and environmental benefits to the urban people in a city. Bangladesh's third largest city is Khulna, which is dominated by agriculture, two of the Wards of this city namely Ward no. 17 and Ward no. 20 are selected as the study area for this study. In many established and developing countries, community gardening is a common feature of urban development, but it is a new concept in Bangladesh. The study aims at exploring the potentials i.e., factors or favorable reasons of introducing community gardens in Khulna City. A wide range of related literature on community gardens are reviewed. A total of 300 households of the study Wards are surveyed through semi-structured questionnaire, key informant interviews of urban planners, civil engineers, architects, agriculturist, environmentalist and sociologist are conducted with review of Khulna City master plans, and other reports and publications. The study finds that approximately 3. 67 acres and 2.43 acres land in Ward no. 17 and Ward no. 20 remain vacant respectively. Also, after knowing the pros and cons of CG, 58.33% people in Ward no. 17 and 60% people of Ward no. 20 become interested to participate in CG. If it is possible to utilize the vacant land for community gardening, community gardens on one acre land having 17 decimal or 10.30 katha land of each community garden will be capable to sequestrate about 3.5 tons of carbon per year and depending on the size and duration of rain event, will be able to hold about 2000-10000 cubic ft. of storm water per year. The study also proposes some sites for the development of community gardens in future.

Monitoring of Carbon Stocks in Pastures in the Savannas of Brazil through Ecosystem Modeling on a Regional Scale

In 2020, Brazil was the seventh largest emitter of GHG (greenhouse gases), releasing ~2.16 GtCO2e (gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent) into the atmosphere. Activities related to land use contributed approximately 73% of national emissions in that year. Considering that pastures represent the primary land use in the country, occupying approximately 20% of the territory, the mapping and monitoring of C stocks in these areas is essential to determine their contribution to national emissions. In this study, based on the integrated use of the CENTURY model, georeferenced databases, and the R environment, we mapped and analyzed, for the first time, the C stocks dynamics associated with the pasture areas of the Cerrado biome between 2000 and 2019. The average C stocks in the soil (0–20 cm) and in the aboveground biomass estimated by modeling were ~31 MgC·ha−1 and ~4 MgC·ha−1, respectively, values close to those observed in the literature for the region. Furthermore, the model results corresponded to the edaphic patterns of the region, with the highest average estimated C stocks in Cambisols (~34 MgC·ha−1) and the lowest in Neosols (~29 MgC·ha−1). The temporal dynamics of soil C stocks in these areas are directly related to the age of the pastures. In fact, stocks tend to be reduced in recently converted areas and stabilized in areas that have been under this land use for a longer time (≥30 years). As a result, a loss of ~103 MtC (millions of tons of carbon) was estimated in the Cerrado pasture soils in twenty years. The mapping and monitoring of C stocks in this land use type through approaches such as the one presented in this study is essential to support the Brazilian government’s efforts to mitigate C emissions.

Comparative Study on Estimation of Carbon Content in Different Parts of Selected Bamboo Species

Bamboos are a unique species in terms of their ecological impacts as well as their social and economic role in the livelihoods of people living in their vicinity. It has attracted the attention of researchers worldwide owing to its carbon sequestration ability and the potential of various bamboo species in this changing environment. In this research the biomass carbon storage of bamboo components were analyzed to estimate their respective carbon content in as well as in different components like culm, rhizome, leaves etc. Dendrocalamus asper stands out as the bamboo species which sequestered the maximum carbon (culm> rhizome> leaf) primarily due to its vast biomass content. The carbon content of D. asper was 87.52 tonnes of carbon per hectare. This was followed by B. balcooa with carbon content of 56.48 t C ha-1 with the least carbon content in B. vulgaris i.e., 33.92 t C ha-1. It points to the tremendous potential of bamboo in sequestering carbon but more research is desired to arrive at concrete results. Bamboo species have an inherent ability to grow in degraded lands which gives an additional advantage in promoting bamboo plantations as envisaged by National Bamboo Mission.

Carbon stock and sequestration as a form of payment for environmental services in a sedimentary basin humid forest refuge in brazilian semiarid

Forests function as carbon reservoirs since they act in its sequestration and storage, playing a fundamental role in global climate change mitigation. Payments for this kind of environmental service have emerged as an important means for combating deforestation. This study evaluated the potential of a Sedimentary Basin Humid Forest refuge in a Semiarid Brazilian region (Chapada do Araripe, southern Ceará state) to receive payments for environmental services (PES) for carbon (C) assimilation and storage. The biomass quantification was performed by the non-destructive method and the determination of the C content was carried out using a LECO carbon analyzer to correlate carbon production in different litter components with climate variables. The carbon, carbon increment and stored carbon values were obtained by information collected from a continuous forest inventory. The average carbon content of each litter component and the volume of wood stored in the forest indicated that the fragment has 27.78 t ha−1 of carbon stored in its living biomass and an annual increment of 1.26 t ha−1 year. The carbon sequestered annually totaled 3.99 t ha−1 [carbon incorporated in the litter (2.73 t ha−1) + average annual increment of carbon in the commercial volume (1.26 t ha−1)] indicating that the area sequesters an average of 102.02 t ha−1 CO2e. Of the three studied compartments, only the leaves component showed a significant correlation with any climatic variable (rainfall). Based on amounts paid per ton of carbon sequestered, it is estimated that the area can earn € 2583.79.ha−1 should it participate in a program of PES for carbon sequestration and storage. This value serves as an incentive for the conservation of biodiversity, promoting environmental benefits and financial advantages compared to other forms of land use.

A framework to estimate climate mitigation potential for US cropland using publicly available data

The US agricultural sector is proposed as one opportunity to contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions—reductions that are needed to limit atmospheric warming to be more in line with the US Nationally Determined Contribution to the Paris Agreement. Improved management of agricultural soils can both mitigate GHG emissions and increase carbon (C) sequestration, but disagreement exists regarding what levels of adoption are possible and to what extent they may mitigate net GHG emissions. In this paper, we provide a framework for setting reasonable, short-term conservation practice adoption targets and quantifying the associated net emissions reductions. Our framework was constructed using USDA-based publicly available inventory data and mitigation potentials from the COMET-Planner tool scaled to nine farm resource regions. The framework includes 2017 levels of conservation practice adoption and two 10-year growth scenarios: business-as-usual (BAU) and accelerated adoption rates. We evaluated six cropland management practices and practices associated with Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) establishment. Based on existing (2017) census data, we estimated that 134.2 million tonnes (Mt) carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂e) per year have been or continue to be reduced through the adoption of conservation management practices on a cumulative total of 133.5 million hectares (Mha) of cropland. Under the BAU scenario, we estimated an additional 6.2 Mha y⁻¹ of adoption could result in a reduction potential of 48.7 Mt CO₂e y⁻¹. Under the accelerated scenario, we estimated an additional 13.1 Mha y⁻¹ of adoption could result in a reduction potential of 118.5 Mt of CO₂e y⁻¹ over the next 10 years. This framework highlights three key outcomes: (1) agriculture has had a substantial impact on GHG mitigation through existing/historical adoption of six cropland management practices and conversion of lands to the CRP; (2) these shifts in adoption provide an important baseline to make future projections of changes in practice adoption given regional trends and the resulting GHG mitigation potentials; and (3) disaggregating national estimates to the farm resource region level can help to inform and prioritize programs and policies consistent with existing climate goals. Estimates reported here reflect the current state of national modeling efforts and agricultural inventory sources. As new data such as the pending 2022 Ag Census report and model enhancements are made, the framework we outline here can be used to revise and update the estimates to improve accuracy and applicability.

Putative Methanogenic Biosphere in Enceladus's Deep Ocean: Biomass, Productivity, and Implications for Detection

Saturn's moon Enceladus is a top candidate in the search for extraterrestrial life in our solar system. Ecological thermodynamic modeling of the plume composition data collected by NASA's Cassini mission led to the hypothesis that a hydrogenotrophic methanogenic ecosystem might exist in the putative hydrothermal vents at Enceladus's seafloor. Here we extend this approach to quantify the ecosystem's expected biomass stock and production and evaluate its detectability from the collection of plume material. We find that although a hypothetical biosphere in Enceladus's ocean could be small (<10 tons of carbon), measurable amounts of cells and organics might enter the plume. However, it is critical that missions be designed to gain meaningful insights from a negative outcome (no detection). We show that in order to sample a cell from the plume with 95% confidence, >0.1 mL of material needs to be collected. This would require material from more than 100 fly-bys through the plume or using a lander. We then consider amino acid abundance as an alternative signature and find that the absolute abundance of amino acids, such as glycine, could be very informative if a detection threshold of 1 × 10−7 mol L−1 could be achieved. Altogether, our findings set relatively high bars on sample volume and amino acid detection thresholds, but these goals seem within the reach of near-future missions.