Great Balls of Carbon
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 01. 9.08
Well, silica anyhow. A couple of agricultural scientists from Southern Cross University in Australia figure that particular grass crops, like wheat and sorghum (pictured), can lock away some of those excessive carbon atoms we’re so alarmed about.
Apparently microscopic balls of silica, bind to the plant's cells as they draw up minerals up from the soil. They are thought to make the plant stronger while protecting it from disease. Known as phytoliths, or plantstones these silica balls also trap scraps of plant material and thus carbon. And what’s more they are considered near indestructible. So when the plant dies the plantstones find themselves back in the soil locking up carbon for what is believed to be thousands of years.
What the researchers are hoping to unearth is which is which strains of crop are the most effective at this neat trick. To date wheat and sorghum seem to be able to both provide a crop yield and sequester carbon. ::New Scientist, via Sydney Morning Herald
All plants are made of carbon.
They're solar powered, self-replicating, self-repairing, water and soil cleaning, autonomous "machines".
But when they die the carbon gets released again.
I'd think you'd want the longest living plants to be used to sequester carbon for longer periods. Biological sequestering of carbon is never permanent. But trees that live 2000+ years would keep the carbon locked up a lot longer than annuals....
Carbon can be sequestered in the soil. See the effect of mixing charcoal in the soil of the amazon centuries ago which is still present today ( google for "terra preta" )
/ Colm