Darwin McDaniel
A research team has used samples from a Battelle-managed network of environmental observing sites in an effort to analyze the role of deep soil minerals and climate in carbon sequestration.
Battelle said Tuesday researchers Marc Kramer and Oliver Chadwick utilized megapit soils from the National Ecological Observatory Network and a set of global soil data for the “Climate-Driven Thresholds in Reactive Mineral Retention of Soil Carbon at the Global Scale” study.
“We wanted to look at a global scale to get a better understanding of the links between rainfall, reactive mineral carbon storage, and how shifts in climate patterns may change this pathway in the future,” said Kramer, co-author of the study.
The analysis, published in Nature Climate Change, examined samples that were collected at 47 terrestrial NEON field sites.
NEON is funded by the National Science Foundation and built to gather ecological data for use in multiple research areas. The continental-scale program offers archival samples and open access data, which Battelle says can aid in carbon capture and climate studies.
NSF selected the nonprofit research and development company in 2016 to build and commission the network’s data collection infrastructure.
