Presenter: Professor Paul Nelson | Soil Scientist | Earth and Environmental Sciences | James Cook University

Abstract

To reach net zero greenhouse gas emission we must remove CO2 from the atmosphere, in addition to drastically reducing CO2 emissions. Enhanced rock weathering is a promising CO2 removal technology, but many questions need to be answered.

How effective is it? How is removal rate related to climate, rock characteristics, soil type, vegetation and land management? What are the other effects?

In this seminar the concepts will be discussed, and JCU’s enhanced rock weathering research program will be described.  

Speaker Bio

Professor Paul Nelson is a soil scientist working at the agricultural-environmental interface. He has accumulated experience in the coldest to hottest and driest to wettest agricultural environments on Earth and delved into the worst and best soils.

One of his main research themes is carbon cycling; soil is the biggest terrestrial store of carbon and the biggest terrestrial source of atmospheric CO2. What interests him most is how to manage agricultural land well.