Two Rice University scientists have received a 3-year grant from the Department of Energy (DOE) to investigate a form of carbon storage that is as little understood as it is ubiquitous: soil.
Mark Torres, an assistant professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences, and Evan Ramos, a postdoctoral fellow in the Torres lab, will track how key minerals form in a watershed to build a fuller picture of the processes that allow soil to store carbon as organic matter.
“Soil on Earth contains three times more carbon than the atmosphere,” Ramos said. “We want to understand the mechanisms that allow for organic carbon to be stabilized and remain in soil over a wide range of timescales, from the human to the geological.”
Read more at: Rice University
Mark Torres (left) and Evan Ramos (Photo Credit: Gustavo Raskosky/Rice University)