EWRECA

The main goal of EWRECA is to develop an agricultural management practice for rice paddies that (i) minimises the GHG emissions, while maximising (ii) rice production (biomass and quality), and (iii) C sequestration.

In order to limit global warming to the well below 2°C of the United Nations’ Paris Agreement, model projections indicate that both rapid decarbonisation and the implementation of negative emission technologies (NETs) that ensure long-term stable carbon (C) sequestration will be required. Among NETs, enhanced weathering (EW) of silicate rocks can remove CO2 from the atmosphere, while potentially delivering co-benefits for agriculture (e.g. reduced nitrogen losses, increased yields, increased drought and salinity resistance) and reducing the overall greenhouse gas emissions from this activity.

The project will be conducted in a mesocosm field experiment combining different flooding conditions that may enhance greenhouse gas emissions and different application rates of silicate rocks and artificial silicates (concrete demolition fines). This experiment will allow to analyse the effects of enhanced silicate weathering on the overall soil and water chemical characteristics and determine which silicate type, and at which rate, leads to the lowest greenhouse gas emissions, the highest yield quantity and quality, and a maximised soil carbon sequestration. Moreover, the effects of these agricultural management practices on different microbial nitrogen transformation rates and the microbial communities involved will be assessed.