Biological Carbon Sequestration for Climate and Soil Health

Technical Report · Tue Oct 19 04:00:00 EDT 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1856687· OSTI ID:1856687

Eudes, Aymerick ^[1]; Webb, Erin ^[2]; Zhalnina, Kateryna ^[1]; Mitchell, Julie ^[2]; Christiansen, Katy ^[1]; Jabusch, Lauren ^[1]; Yang, Xiaohan ^[2]

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1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

The United States recently launched the Net Zero World Initiative on decarbonization. As temperatures and sea levels rise, strong action is needed to mitigate high atmospheric CO₂ levels. In response to this need, a joint workshop between the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) was convened to assess the challenges and opportunities within biological carbon (C) capture. The virtual workshop on Biological Carbon Sequestration for Climate and Soil Health focused on three aspects of biological C capture research: natural systems, engineered systems, and modeling. For this workshop, the scope of natural systems included unmanaged (e.g., grasslands, wetlands, natural forests) and managed (e.g., agricultural lands, commercial forests, forest biofuels) ecosystems. The engineered systems group covered topics in genetically modified plants and microbes, synthetic microbiomes, and altered plant–microbe interactions for enhancing C capture, storage, and utilization. The modeling group focused on computational tools and data collection to predict and assess the effectiveness of new biocarbon sequestration advances. Participant expertise included plant and microbial systems biology, synthetic biology, soil biogeochemistry, and techno-economic analysis. Together, participants outlined key scientific advances in support of biological C capture and storage. Among the major findings of the meeting were the need to better measure C flux within natural, agricultural, and fabricated ecosystems for experimentation; better understand the role of soil composition, plant roots, and the rhizosphere (i.e., the soil surrounding the plant root) in the underground storage of organic C; and design plant–microbe systems for maximal C storage.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1856687
• Report Number(s): ORNL/SPR-2022/2415
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES