Greenlandic glacial rock flour improves crop yield in organic agricultural production
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Greenlandic glacial rock flour improves crop yield in organic agricultural production. / Gunnarsen, Klara Cecilia; Jensen, Lars Stoumann; Rosing, Minik T.; Dietzen, Christiana.
In: Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, Vol. 126, No. 1, 2023, p. 51-66.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Greenlandic glacial rock flour improves crop yield in organic agricultural production
AU - Gunnarsen, Klara Cecilia
AU - Jensen, Lars Stoumann
AU - Rosing, Minik T.
AU - Dietzen, Christiana
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - The application of mechanically crushed silicate minerals to agricultural soils has been proposed as a method for both improving crop yields and sequestering inorganic carbon through enhanced mineral weathering. In Greenland, large quantities of finely grained glacial rock flour (GRF) are naturally produced by glacial erosion of bedrock and deposited in easily accessible lacustrine and marine deposits, without the need for energy-intensive grinding. To determine if this material can improve crop yields, we applied 10 and 50 t GRF ha−1 to a sandy, organic agricultural field in Denmark. Two field trials were carried out to test the first-year yield response to GRF in both maize and potatoes, residual effects on potato yields in the year after application, and second and third-year residual effects on spring wheat. Reference-K treatments were included for comparison to determine if the beneficial effects of GRF were primarily due to its K content (3.5% K2O). This alternative source of silicate minerals improved crop yields in the year of application. Though there was no improvement in yield with the reference-K treatments, for each additional ton of GRF applied, maize dry yield increased by 59 kg ha−1 and potato tuber yield by an additional 90 kg ha−1. No residual effects on crop yields were observed in the following years, but we suspect that benefits might persist over multiple seasons at sites with lower initial fertility. The increase in yields achieved with GRF could offset some of the costs of applying silicate minerals as a CO2 sequestration scheme.
AB - The application of mechanically crushed silicate minerals to agricultural soils has been proposed as a method for both improving crop yields and sequestering inorganic carbon through enhanced mineral weathering. In Greenland, large quantities of finely grained glacial rock flour (GRF) are naturally produced by glacial erosion of bedrock and deposited in easily accessible lacustrine and marine deposits, without the need for energy-intensive grinding. To determine if this material can improve crop yields, we applied 10 and 50 t GRF ha−1 to a sandy, organic agricultural field in Denmark. Two field trials were carried out to test the first-year yield response to GRF in both maize and potatoes, residual effects on potato yields in the year after application, and second and third-year residual effects on spring wheat. Reference-K treatments were included for comparison to determine if the beneficial effects of GRF were primarily due to its K content (3.5% K2O). This alternative source of silicate minerals improved crop yields in the year of application. Though there was no improvement in yield with the reference-K treatments, for each additional ton of GRF applied, maize dry yield increased by 59 kg ha−1 and potato tuber yield by an additional 90 kg ha−1. No residual effects on crop yields were observed in the following years, but we suspect that benefits might persist over multiple seasons at sites with lower initial fertility. The increase in yields achieved with GRF could offset some of the costs of applying silicate minerals as a CO2 sequestration scheme.
KW - Enhanced rock weathering
KW - ERW
KW - Glacial rock flour
KW - Mineral fertilizer
KW - Potassium
KW - Rock dust
KW - Silicate minerals
U2 - 10.1007/s10705-023-10274-0
DO - 10.1007/s10705-023-10274-0
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85150430416
VL - 126
SP - 51
EP - 66
JO - Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems
JF - Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems
SN - 1385-1314
IS - 1
ER -
ID: 340689894