Rock powder amendment in enhancing plant-mediated carbon sequestration

Abstract

The global quest for controlling climate change and ensuring environmental sustainability has necessitated the need for the adoption of environmentally friendly measures for greenhouse gas emission control. These novel solutions for combating the rapid increase in greenhouse gas emissions involves the amendment of soil with rock powder for enhancing rock weathering and carbon capture. Under the influence of plant roots rhizosphere effects (rhizosphere acidification and organic acid secretion) that control nutrients and ions flux, rock powder undergo weathering to release nutrients for plant uptake. These nutrients promote plants overall productivity, and photosynthetic potential for optimum uptake and conversion of CO₂ into organic carbon. This process of enhancing plant health, productivity and carbon uptake in the presence of weathered rock mineral is term rock powder enhanced plant-mediated carbon sequestration. In fact, plant-mediated carbon sequestration centers on the biological and physiological processes of photosynthesis involving carbon uptake, conversion into organic carbon and storage in biomass and soil. Specifically, no existing enhanced rock weathering (ERW) review has systematically detailed and explained the mechanisms of plant-mediated carbon sequestration. Hence, in this review, we explored the multifaceted contributions of rock powder in promoting plant mediated carbon sequestration and soil inorganic carbon sequestration. We discuss the distinct mechanisms by which rock powder contributes to plant productivity and the accumulation of inorganic and organic carbon pools in the soil. Additionally, we discuss the factors affecting the efficiency of rock powder mediated carbon sequestration, showing the rationale behind the variations in the results obtained from different research projects. We argue that although rock powder amendment could contribute to promoting soil carbon sequestration, and although progress has been made to that effect, several limitations and challenges threaten its wide adoption and application. We equally discuss the possible future directions to address these challenges, as gaining insight into the various pathways that rock powder, through enhanced weathering, contributes to carbon capture and soil fertility enhancement is crucial for the attainment of food security and environmental sustainability.

Graphic abstract:

Graphical Abstract

Highlights

• Amendment of soil with rock powder improved plants’ vegetative growth for optimum biomass carbon storage.

• Carbon sequestration through phytolith carbon occlusion promotes plant contribution to decarbonization.

• Rock powder amendment supports carbon sequestration via organic and inorganic pathways.

1 Introduction

Soil carbon sequestration is indeed a subject of major global concern. Soil, as a habitat that supports both above and belowground ecosystem interactions, can act as both a sink and a source of carbon. And devising means to increase its carbon storage capacity could potentially support and stabilize the atmospheric carbon balance, thereby aiding the sustainable control of climate change. Recently, efforts have been put in place to increase soil carbon storage by means of suppressing the emission of carbon from the soil and/or reintroduction of carbon through application of soil amendments (Enebe et al., 2025; Ray et al., 2020). Other avenues implemented in carbon sequestration include direct carbon capture and cultivation of microalgae (Gurau et al., 2025; McLaughlin et al., 2023) as well as planting of trees (Kirschbaum et al., 2024). Each of these carbon sequestration measures has its strengths and weaknesses that vary in time and space, location, and soil types (Amulothu et al., 2023). Among these carbon sequestration approaches, the cultivation and preservation of plants stand out with numerous benefits, like bioconversion of atmospheric carbon dioxide into organic carbon stored in plant biomass. Plants equally serve to absorb solar radiation during photosynthesis, maintain water balance, conserve soil biodiversity, and promote soil organic carbon stock through root exudation, and perhaps, provide significant climate change impacts. However, sustaining a heathy population of plants that participate in active carbon uptake from the atmosphere requires increase in soil fertility and soil health. Several measures such as soil fertilization, application of organic amendments, soil and trees conservation has been adopted to enhance plant productivity, carbon capture and soil conditions (Enebe and Babalola, 2020; Enebe et al., 2026; Rudmin et al., 2019). Currently, there is limited understanding of the plant-mediated carbon sequestration under enhanced rock weathering, a research gap that needs to be addressed.

Nonetheless, carbon can be stored in the soil as organic and inorganic carbon. Their level of storage is often influenced by soil management, plants photosynthesis and microbial biogeochemical cycling of carbon. Inorganic carbon storage, on the other hand, is dependent on soil mineral weathering (Gaucher et al., 2025). Therefore, since plants’ continued contributions to soil carbon sequestration is of importance, maintaining soil nutrients availability will support the growth, health and overall performance of plants in carbon uptake, conversion and storage. Deficiency in soil nutrients could result in yellowing of leaves, leaf senescence, stunted growth, poor root system development, and death (Aiswarya et al., 2023; Wahid et al., 2020). To offset these nutrient limitations and promote plant vegetative growth, development, and carbon storage capacity will require a direct exogenous supply of plant nutrients. This is where soil amendment with rock powder sets in as an eco-friendly, less expensive amendment for promoting plants’ productivity through nutrient supply, reducing pathogen infestation, increasing microbial community diversity, and improving the stress tolerance of plants (Debona et al., 2017; Wang et al., 2025; Figure 1).

Figure 1

Interestingly, rock powder applied to the soil as an amendment (with the intention for atmospheric carbon dioxide capture and supply of nutrients to plants) has been shown to support above and belowground ecosystem functions. Its application increased soil organic carbon, dissolved organic carbon, mineral associated carbon, microbial biomass carbon, and particulate organic carbon (Wang et al., 2025). Rock powder, such as silicate rock minerals like basalt, wollastonite, dolerite, etc., equally contributes to the formation of soil inorganic carbon during the process of weathering and has been observed to have the tendency to triple the level of soil carbon sequestration during weathering (Gaucher et al., 2025). Another study has quantified the direct contributions of basalt powder in increasing the total inorganic carbon and observed that hydrogen gas could be released during the process, hence contributing dual benefits to energy production and carbon sequestration (Al-Yaseri et al., 2025). Additionally, evidence has shown that amendment of soil with rock powder (wollastonite) yields an increase in soil inorganic carbon pool accumulation at a rate of 0.55 t CO₂ ha⁻¹ month⁻¹ with an efficiency of about 0.42 t CO₂ t⁻¹ (Khalidy et al., 2025). Nevertheless, rock powder application in some studies have equally shown limited or negligible carbon sequestration due to its minimal release of alkalinity into solution. This low alkalinity flux potential of rock powder decreases the rate of CO₂ removal. Evidence has show that to achieve a CO₂ removal of 1.8 ± 0.9 MtCO₂ yr.⁻¹ from a cropland, will require at least 10 years of basalt application (Buckingham and Henderson, 2024). Therefore the extent of rock powder carbon dioxide sequestration as presented in various studies is context, environmental and location dependent.

Besides, there is a current state of disagreement in the field regarding the debate over the permanence of inorganic carbon and the risk of soil respiration stimulation following application of rock powder to the soil (Dupla et al., 2024). In fact a process-based soil inorganic carbon turnover model designed by Hu et al. (2026) has shown that soil inorganic carbon (SIC) stock response to climate change with a decrease of 314 ± 8 Tg C at the topsoil, and also with a significant loss of 217 ± 9 Tg C from the 2 m soil depth. This study provide the background that SIC, which initially was thought to be a very stable and permanent form of carbon is not. SIC stability is challenged by soil pH. It has been found that application of nitrogen fertilizer to an agricultural soil induces soil acidification and correspondingly results in a dramatic loss of inorganic carbon from the soil (Raza et al., 2020). In essence soil pH and mean annual temperature are among the major drivers controlling the stability, longevity and/or permenance of soil inorganic carbon in the soil. Activities such as fertilization, land use changes and afforestation that induce soil pH changes will significantly regulate the stability and response of SIC in the soil (An et al., 2019; Hong and Chen, 2022).

In light of the foregoing statement, it is interesting to note that rock powder application to the soil could serve as a sustainable avenue in promoting soil carbon sequestration and plant productivity, including CO₂ assimilation through photosynthesis. In this review, we aim to explore the multifaceted contributions of rock powder (enhanced rock powder weathering) in promoting plant mediated carbon sequestration and soil inorganic carbon sequestration. Discuss the distinct mechanisms that rock powder contributes to plant productivity and the accumulation of the inorganic carbon pool. Additionally, we discuss the factors affecting the efficiency of rock powder mediated carbon sequestration, showing the rationale behind the variations in the results obtained across different locations. We argue that although rock powder amendment could sustainably contribute to achieving the decarbonization initiative in climate change control, several limitations and challenges threaten its application and sustainability. We equally discuss the possible future directions to address these challenges.

2 Methodology

This review study was performed through the evaluation and synthesis of knowledge from publicly available peer-reviewed articles. We sourced information from publications deposited in Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and through Google search databases using the keyword, “rock,” “rock powder,” “enhanced rock weathering”, “carbon sequestration”, “soil inorganic carbon”, “soil organic carbon”, “phytolith occluded carbon” AND “rock weathering.” Published studies across the globe that focus on how rock powder amendment through enhanced rock weathering facilitates carbon sequestration and plant performance were used for the study. Indeed, to ensure accuracy and rigor in the article selection, we screened for peer-reviewed field studies and a few microcosm studies that focused on carbon uptake capacity of enhanced rock weathering and plants. Review or metaanalysis articles on the topic were not included. This information search was done on the March 2025 and the retrieval timeframe is from 1990 to 2025. During this exercise, we utilized information contained in original research papers that quantitatively displayed how rock powder amendment played a role in soil carbon sequestration, and in plant mediated carbon capture. These original articles utilized herein were mostly recent publications, and a few older publications were equally included to observe the trend and trajectory of the progress made to date in understanding the mechanism of rock powder mediated and plant mediated carbon sequestration. The rationale for dwelling more on recent studies was based on the shift in research from understanding the influence of rock powder on microbial activities, on how plants induce rock weathering, cation-solute flux and mineral mass balance during weathering (characteristics of older research) to recent studies that addressed the contributions of enhanced rock weathering to soil mineral carbon pump, soil organic carbon accumulation and mineralization and increase in crop yield to promoting soil carbon sequestration and sustainable mitigation of climate change. It is noteworthy to mention that this study is not a systematic review and as such did not adhere completely to the systematic review protocol nor aimed to addressing a hypothesis. Rather, the trend of research performed in this area over the years as well as synthesis of knowledge from a collection of relevant literature was the basis of the study, aimed at pointing out the current research gap in the literature as well as the current disagreement in the field on the permanence of inorganic carbon and the risk of soil respiration stimulation under enhanced rock weathering.

3 Contributions of rock powder amendment to soil carbon sequestration

Carbon can be stored in the soil either as soil inorganic carbon and/or organic carbon. Soil inorganic carbon forms through direct chemical interactions of soil minerals with dissolved carbon dioxide that originates not only from the atmosphere but, more critically, plant root respiration and rhizosphere microbial activities, resulting in the formation of calcium or magnesium carbonate (Figure 2). The type of carbonate formed is dependent on the chemical composition of the minerals. Hence, this process is controlled by the weathering of silicate rocks, a phenomenon termed silicate-mineral-mediated inorganic carbon sequestration. However, when the mineral-carbon interaction is speed up by human intervention through crushing of rocks and application to the soil to enhance the natural processes, then it is referred to as enhanced rock weathering. In the presence of water, atmospheric CO_2, roots and microbial respired CO₂ dissolves to form carbonic acid, which dissociates into HCO₃⁻ and H⁺ ions in the soil solutions. Weathering of rock powder in the presence of water leads to the dissolution of the metallic ions or disintegration of the rock mineral components into undissociated solid compounds, cations, and anions. The cations in this case, either Ca²⁺ or Mg²⁺ ions, will react with the anion HCO₃⁻ to precipitate as an inorganic carbonate compound. This process result in a long-term carbonate formation under suitable geochemical conditions (Khalidy et al., 2025). The carbon capturing process of weathered rock powder generates little or no environmental pollutants and is indeed a clean and environmental friendly approach to addressing carbon emissions from soil. Evidence has shown that when applied together with organic fertilizer results in the accumulation of soil inorganic carbon and release of macro and micro nutrients (Ryan et al., 2024).

Figure 2

Weathering of rock powder either through biological or chemical means will generate both cations (Mg, Ca, K, Fe) and anions (P, SiO₂, CO₃²⁻). These ions could either enter the soil, get absorbed by plants or react with the CO₂ to form carbonate minerals. Some of the cations will adsorb on the mineral surface and interact with organic carbon, leading to the formation of mineral associated organic carbon. Evidence has shown that weathered basaltic rock powder can achieve a carbon sequestration efficiency of up to 9.728 t ha⁻¹ a⁻¹ (Tang X. et al., 2025; Table 1). The quantitative comparison of inorganic carbon sequestration potentials among different rock powders (e.g., basalt vs. wollastonite vs. olivine) will depend on the unit of measurements (either t CO₂/ha or Kg CO₂/ha/yr). while ton CO₂/ha measures the total stored carbon at a particular time (carbon stock), Kg CO₂/ha/yr. measures the annual CO2 sequestration (rate of sequestration). Since 1 ton is equivalent to 1,000 kg, converting tons to kg will require multiplying it by 1,000. However, study has shown that wollastonite with its high carbonation kinetics or reactivity generated an approximately 0.6 wt% of inorganic carbon in an amended soil (corresponding to a CO₂ sequestration rate of about 500 tCO₂/ha/yr; Haque et al., 2019). In another study, wollestonite application to an agricultural soil planted with vegetables resulted in inorganic carbon sequestration of about 1.9 tCO₂/ha/yr (Haque et al., 2020). In another study, Wood et al. (2023) has shown that application of wollastonite to soils in columns resulted in a maximum CO₂ sequestration of 255 kg CO₂ t⁻¹. The second rock mineral that support inorganic carbon sequestration is olivine. This rock mineral with its high magnesium composition has been found to support an increase in CO₂ sequestration by approximately 0.5 to 4.4 tCO₂ ha⁻¹ yr.⁻¹ in pot experiments grown with ryegrass (Ten Berge et al., 2012). The least or moderate rock mineral in CO₂ uptake is basaltic rock powder. This type of rock powder has been shown to have an inorganic carbon sequestration capacity of 5 ± 3 kgCO₂ ha⁻¹ yr.⁻¹ when applied to an agricultural soil (Buckingham and Henderson, 2024). Comparatively, a study performed by te Pas et al. (2023) using Inorganic Carbon-method of quantification has observed that wollestonite (0.61–0.63 g CO₂ kg⁻¹ soil) has the highest CO₂ capture, followed by olivine (0.60–0.58 g CO₂ kg⁻¹ soil) and the least was basalt (0.38–0.47 g CO₂ kg⁻¹ soil).

During this weathering process, dissolved cations form minerals by reacting with CO₂ to form carbonates, which can attach to the surfaces of weathered rock powder. Some of the released ions will get adsorbed on the colloidal phases in soil, leached into the groundwater or on mineral surfaces. Suffice to say that weathered rock powder reaction sequesters carbon dioxide from soil and air by forming dolomites, calcite and magnesites in the soil or on the surfaces of the weathered rock powder (Tang X. et al., 2025; Figure 3). Rock powder weathering as shown in Figure 3 reveals structural changes in the texture of the rock particles like curled and frayed edges of the rock grains. This observation indicates leaching of magnesium and adsorption of calcium and/or sodium on the weathered rock grains (Vanderkloot and Ryan, 2023). This weathering process is continuous, leading to the accumulation of soil inorganic carbon (SIC), which either gets stored in the soil, washed and/or drained into the water bodies. Another form of weathering is the biological weathering process. Biological weathering could be in the form of microbial mediated or plant mediated rock weathering. Bacteria (Peribacillus simplex WS-L19), for example, possess a unique weathering ability with the potential to facilitate the release of Fe (1.70 ± 0.09 μg/mL) and Si (20.11 ± 1.13 μg/mL) from basaltic rock. These microbes, through the production of organic acids, biofilm formation, and siderophore production, enhance the dissolution of rock powder minerals (Zhang et al., 2025). Organic acids such as lactic acid, tartaric acid, succinic acid, formic acid, etc. are secreted by these bacteria to aid the weathering process and nutrient release.

Figure 3

Plants induced weathering of rocks and rock powder through rhizosphere acidification and organic acid secretion which modulate root-soil interface pH and regulate the concentrations of H⁺ or OH⁻ ions, aimed at controlling the uptake balance of cations and anions by the root systems. Study has shown that rhizosphere effects of soybean plants significantly decreased soil pH (Tang S. et al., 2025). This pH lowering effect is as a result of the complex processes involving root respiration, redox reaction, organic acid exudation and carbon dioxide hydration (Bouray et al., 2021). These complex processes governed by the roots systems and their rhizosphere effects ultimately stimulate mineral and/or rock weathering that is of significance in soil formation (Richter and Babbar, 1991; Richter et al., 2007).

Indeed, the growth of the vegetation increases the flux of dissolved cations (Ca and Mg) from rock particles under runoff conditions. Plants, in association with root-associated microbes, equally play a role in the dissolution of rock minerals (Gíslason et al., 1996; Wu et al., 2024). Interestingly, plants’ contributions to rock weathering are a complex phenomenon that is controlled by a range of factors like topography, plant types, climate, lithology and/or mineral type. For instance, minerals rich in calcium and magnesium tend to weather faster than minerals poor in these ions. Their dissolution rates are fast, especially in the early phase, and facilitate the accumulation and sequestration of carbon in the treated soil as well as the release of essential nutrients for plant productivity (Lewis et al., 2021).

Interestingly, while evidence has shown that rock powder via enhanced rock weathering process is a sustainable alternative strategy for geological carbon storage due to its capacity for mineral carbonation and availability with potential for clean energy production (Al-Yaseri et al., 2025; Gaucher et al., 2025), soil inorganic carbon (SIC) are prone to degradation due to regular application of inorganic fertilizer and agricultural intensification. Before now, it was believed that SIC can get stored in the soil for thousands of years, but progressive input of nitrogen fertilizer, with consequences for soil acidification due to the nitrification process, facilitates the disintegration of soil inorganic carbon (Raza et al., 2020). Studies have shown that a significant amount of SIC has been lost from agricultural soil over a period of three decades due to agricultural intensification and fertilization (Song et al., 2022; Tao et al., 2022), suggesting the need for the maintenance of balance in irrigation and inorganic fertilization as a way to curb SIC loss. Rock weathering or enhanced rock weathering targeted toward increasing SIC sequestration through accelerating the rate of the rock weathering process is an environmental friendly strategy for CO₂ removal. Besides its role in promoting the accumulation of SIC, rock powder undergoing enhanced weathering also positively impacts the soil organic carbon pool. Evidently, a 2-year field experiment involving the amendment of rubber plantation with wollastonite rock powder has shown a significant increase in the amount of soil organic carbon and carbonate ions in the soil. The principle behind rock powder amendment promotion of soil organic carbon accumulation is dependent on its ability to form mineral associated organic matter and macroaggregates with soil organic matter. The release of ions such as calcium, silicate, and iron aid their binding to the organic matter and promotes soil organic carbon sequestration (Xu T. et al., 2024). The weathering of rock powder may promote more accumulation and stabilization of organic carbon than inorganic carbon due to its influence in promoting mineral nutrients availability that support plant and microbial nutrition as well as providing surfaces or ionic groups for binding to organic carbon compounds. In essence, binding of cations (Ca²⁺), silicate, and iron to organic carbon leads to coprecipitation and complexation, thereby stabilizing them in the soil through formation of macroaggregate and mineral associated organic carbon (Shabtai et al., 2023; Xu T. et al., 2024).

Indirectly, rock powder minerals under weathering could promote the accumulation and sequestration of carbon in the soil through stimulating plant root growth and input of microbial derived carbon. The presence of vigorous growing roots, following an increase in bioavailability of soil nutrients, facilitates an increase in microbial growth and turnover, leading to the accumulation of necromass carbon in the soil (Lugli et al., 2021; Zhu et al., 2024). Furthermore, microbial growth and necromass accumulation, as well as their association with rock powder minerals, could potentially facilitate the formation of mineral associated organic matter, which aids the storage of carbon and inhibits its decomposition in the soil. Additionally, weathered rock powder, through binding to the labile organic carbon, can prevent its loss via microbial respiration arising from priming effects. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the factors affecting the accumulation of carbon in the soil, such as microbial decomposition, rhizodeposition, tillage, bioturbation, soil water, root productivity, etc., in designing studies that will account for the overall contributions of rock powder in soil carbon sequestration. For instance, a study has shown that under specific conditions, application of basaltic rock powder rich in calcium promotes the conversion of organic matter into mineral associated organic matter, a more persistent form of soil organic carbon. It can also induce a significant change in microbial community structure, altering plant litter decomposition and providing surfaces for both microbial, necromass, microbial metabolites, and organic matter attachments (Shabtai et al., 2023; Figure 4).

Figure 4

Therefore, application of rock powder could enhance the carbon sequestration through reacting with atmospheric or soil CO₂ to form stable inorganic carbonate minerals or by binding to organic carbon derived from plants’ root exudation, organic matter decomposition, and microbial derived carbon, while enhancing soil fertility (Ryan et al., 2024). Although, the above studies have shown that application of rock powder to the soil is a good greenhouse gas emission control technology, it will be of interest to understand the various factors that affect its carbon sequestration potential. These factors will be discussed below.

4 Factors affecting rock powder-plant- mediated carbon sequestration

The accumulation of soil inorganic carbon following the amendment of soil with rock powder is challenged with several issues, ranging from soil water content/precipitation, rock powder grain size, soil pH, to mineral types. To illustrate, a water balance of less than 8 (i.e., the difference between precipitation and potential evapotranspiration) favors the accumulation of SIC (Mi et al., 2024; Tao et al., 2022). This is mostly found in semi-humid and semi-arid regions. In these environments with low soil water concentrations, the water fluxes (involving the movement rate of water via rainfall, water evapouration and groundwater flow), are not sufficient to create leaching (i.e., the downward movement of dissolved ions like HCO₃⁻) or erosion (i.e., the physical removal of soil particles and inorganic carbon products of the rock powder weathering) from the soil. Hence, this leads to the accumulation of SIC in the topsoil (Tao et al., 2022). In this area and under proper soil management (fertilization), the application of rock powder could enhance the prolonged accumulation of soil inorganic carbon. Recall that SIC can be lost from the soil following agricultural intensification and excessive application of nitrogen fertilizer (Song et al., 2022; Tao et al., 2022), therefore, efforts should be made to control these agricultural activities for the actualization of carbon sequestration objectives. It may be of interest to know that although, SIC could be lost via leaching or dissolution from the site of sequestration, this carbon, in this case dissolved inorganic carbon, could get washed away into the waterbodies (rivers, oceans) and forms part of the blue carbon (i.e., carbon stored in oceans’ sediments, soil and coastal vegetation; Macreadie et al., 2019). However, the process of transition of SIC from soil surface to waterbodies may not be easily quantified due to the fate of the dissolved inorganic carbon during its transition process, which is characterized by either being precipitated out of solution, utilized by microbes and plants, or being adsorbed on mineral surfaces; either way, it is still in the sequestered form. Taken together, water balance controls the efficacy of soil storage of inorganic carbon, and under low water balance, SIC accumulation increased by 12.5% compared with the amount accumulated under high water balance (above 0.8; Guo et al., 2023b). Therefore, the hydrological condition of a location affects the rate of rock powder weathering participation in SIC formation and storage in the soil.

Another environmental driver controlling SIC accumulation under rock weathering is soil pH. Soil pH, which is a measure of the degree of acidity or alkalinity of the soil, affects the rate of rock powder removal of carbon dioxide. Study has shown that acidic soil characterized by acidic pH facilitates an increase in carbon dioxide emission in the presence of rock powder amendment due to acidolysis of calcium carbonate. Whereas under neutral and alkaline pH, rock powder amendment increased the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and/or from the soil environment (Su et al., 2025). The impact of soil acidity on SIC dynamics under enhanced rock weathering is context dependent. Silicate weathering rate is favored by low pH, leading to increased release of cations (Olsen and Rimstidt, 2008), which can increase potential carbon sinks (Beerling et al., 2020). Study has equally shown that the application of basaltic rock powder to agricultural soil resulted in improvement of soil chemical and physical properties, with soil pH increase of up to 7.2 (Pihlap et al., 2025). Since the study by Su et al. (2025) did not distinguish between the dissolution of pre-existing primary carbonates and the weathering of silicates to form secondary carbonates under low soil pH based on their observed increase in carbon loss, therefore, it is plausible to conclude that rock powder contribution to carbon sequestration could perform well both at low and moderate (near neutral or neutral) pH ranges, as the increased CO₂ emission could either arise from microbial activities or dissolution of pre-existing carbonate.

As another example, rock powder particle size has been shown to affect the weathering rate and carbon sequestration potential of the rock mineral. It equally affects the formation of mineral associated organic carbon. Soil mineralogy tends to control the formation of mineral associated soil organic carbon, as well as control microbial degradation of organic carbon. An agricultural soil mineralogy manipulated via introduction of rock powders of different types (kaolinite characterized with low-activity clay, goethite - an Fe-oxide mineral, and montmorillonite characterized with high-activity clay) shows that addition of high quality and low quality litter increases soil respiration under goethite and kaolinite applications. Still, montmorillonite showed a significant difference in the litter respiration/mineralization (Elias et al., 2024; Figure 5). Indeed, soil mineralogy, which encompasses the specific mineral present, their chemical composition and properties such as surface area, charge distribution, particle sizes, etc. The soil mineralogy has been found to influence the carbon capture potential of a silicate rock powder amended soil in the presence of phosphorus fertilizer. In this study, the soil adsorbed both the cations generated during rock weathering and the added phosphorus, making it difficult to actually estimate the captured carbon dioxide (Wood et al., 2023). Therefore, the observed outcome of CO₂ removal by soil amended with rock powder will depend on the soil type and its interactions with the mineral treatment. Hence, it is a bit difficult to estimate the carbon sequestration capacity and the rate of weathering of the soil when applied with rock powder. Accurate estimate of rock weathering decarbonization potential is, perhaps, dependent on site specific or soil specific environmental conditions and will be misleading to compare or assume that the rate of carbon sequestration or CO₂ removal rates of weathered soil is the same across different locations and time. Additionally, it will be interesting to note that the mineralogy and the particle sizes of rock powder equally affect its potential for CO₂ removal. Particle sizes that are less than 45 μm have been found to possess high weathering rates and CO₂ removal rates compared with those with particle sizes ranging from 150 to 500 μm. Increasing the surface area of the rock powder through crushing it into silt like particles will significantly increase the weathering rate and carbon dioxide sequestration (Deng et al., 2023; Vanderkloot and Ryan, 2023). Soil organic carbon sequestration is equally affected by both soil and rock powder mineralogy. Although, particle sizes less than 45 μm have high weathering rates, but this comes with severe environmental costs such as excessive energy consumption for grinding, dust pollution and the risk of pore clogging in soils.

Figure 5

Biological factors such as microbial activities and plants are among the key players in influencing the rate of rock powder weathering. Plants through their biological processes involving respiration, exudation, evapotranspiration as well as decomposition of organic matter and respiration by microbes contribute to rock weathering. The production of organic acids and iron chelating agents such as siderophores by microbes and plants facilitate the weathering of rock powder. These substances are produced to promote nutrients uptake, adapt to environment, outcompete competitors and mitigate aluminum toxicity (Hartmann et al., 2013; Hinsinger et al., 2001). Organic acids such as malic, succinic, oxalic etc. produced by plants has been implicated in substantial weathering of rock powder (Holden et al., 2024). Nitric acid, a product of microbial nitrification process has equally been attributed as a major contributor to rock weathering and carbon dioxide removal (Holden et al., 2024). In essence, organic acid production by microbes and plants could considerably influence the dissolution kinetics of rock powder and promote carbon sequestration processes in the soil.

Another factor that control the reaction kinetics and CO₂ solubility during rock powder weathering is temperature. To illustrate, increase in temperature beyond 31.1 °C and above 7.38 MPa will result in CO₂ transitioning into a supercritical state (i.e., a state in which CO₂ simultaneously behave as a gas and liquid alike) affecting their solubility (Budisa and Schulze-Makuch, 2014). At this state, CO₂ becomes slightly soluble in water and the solubility increases with temperature increase. Study has shown that water solvated in supercritical CO₂ is very reactive toward silicate minerals and promote carbon capture and rock mineral weathering (McGrail et al., 2009). In another study it has been shown that environments with warmer temperature stimulate 1.8 to 16.2 folds higher/increase in weathering products and 3.8 to 9.0 fold increase in weathering rate compared to the rock weathering in cool climates. The study also noted that based on the principle of Arrhenius effect (describe as the relationship whereby increasing the temperature of a system will correspondingly increase the rate of a chemical reaction), increase in temperature from 3.4 to 22 °C will result in 3.5 to 9 folds increase in the dissolution rate of rock minerals (Turner et al., 2010). Therefore, increase in environmental temperature will result in a significant increase in rock powder weathering and carbon sequestration in the soil.

5 Rock powder amendment in enhancing plant productivity and carbon sequestration

To compensate for the lack of adequate supply of inorganic fertilizer to the grassroots farmers and help promote an adequate supply of an eco-friendly low-cost fertilizer for plants’ nutrition, farmers are adopting the use of rock powder as an alternative source of nutrients for crop production. In fact, rock powder has become a good option for ensuring the attainment of food and nutritional security and soil fertility, while mitigating climate change through carbon dioxide sequestration. Mineralogically, the result of an analysis of leachate from rock powder showed that the fertilized soil contains high amounts of essential nutrients for plant nutrition, such as magnesium, calcium, potassium, manganese, and phosphorus (Medeiros et al., 2025; Table 2). Another essential element supplied to plants by rock powder is silicon. Silicon is an important element for building plant cell walls, which promote its ability to withstand stressful conditions, increase leaves’ photosynthesis, and overall plant productivity (Swoboda et al., 2021). Application of rock powder to soil growing maize and soybean plants has shown that it increased the plants’ dry matter, leaf phosphorus, and productivity, while it also increased soil fertility and nutrients’ concentrations (Luchese et al., 2023). In another study, for instance, application of rock powder increased the dry biomass weight of beans by 177 percent, corn by 90 percent, as well as corn height by 59 percent. Besides increasing plant productivity, the application of rock powder to the soil equally was found to increase total inorganic carbon accumulation of the fertilized soil. In fact, as high as 12.04 kg of CO₂ ton⁻¹ soil month⁻¹ sequestered has been recorded for a soil amended with rock powder in a pot experiment (Haque et al., 2019). Increasing both the nutritional quality and yield of plants along side with increasing soil inorganic carbon concentration is a unique feature of using rock powder as soil amendment. It is worthy of note that field evidence presented by Beerling et al. (2024) has shown that application of crushed silicate rock to agricultural farmlands over a four-year period resulted in increased yield of maize and soybean by 12–16%, promoted soil fertility, enhanced roots nutrients transport genes in maize and soybean, modulated soil pH as well as yielded a cumulative carbon dioxide removal potential of 10.5 ± 3.8 t CO₂ ha−1.

Another important attribute of the contribution of rock powder is in the restoration of degraded soil. Soil degradation, which accompanies continuous cultivation of agricultural soil, has been found to be restored by the application of rock powder. In this study, the applied rock powder increased the macronutrient concentration of the amended soil as well as modulated the soil pH (Theodoro et al., 2021). The soil pH control and nutrient enrichment effects of rock powder enhances plants development by promoting growth and germination rates that reaches as high as 53 percent. It equally enhances soil aeration, water percolation, and in the presence of organic matter, ensures adequate soil protection, enrichment of soil organic carbon, and minimizes the need for external water supply through irrigation. This soil conditioning effects and nutrient supply capacity of rock powder is indeed a suitable technology for facilitating the establishment of plants both in the degraded and undegraded soil ecosystems (Theodoro et al., 2021). Rock powder amendment is potentially a slow nutrient releasing fertilizer and provides macro and micronutrients for optimum plant growth and yield over a long period of plant growth seasons. Its positive plant growth promotion effects could be influenced by the level of soil acidity, fertility, atmospheric temperature (cool/dry or warm/wet), and soil water contents. In contrast, inorganic fertilizer has the ultimate advantage of immediate nutrient release for plants uptake. Although, this high nutrient release of inorganic fertilizer corresponds with its short-term nutrients provision due to rapid exhaustion through plant uptake, leaching, runoff, microbial metabolism or transformation into salts in the soil.

Recent research has shown that rock powder amendment of soil contributed to an increase in yield of 18.4 percent for wheat grain, sorghum (21 percent), ryegrass biomass (15.6 percent) and 64 percent of yield gain for green bean (Jariwala et al., 2022; Kelland et al., 2020; Rudmin et al., 2019; Ten Berge et al., 2012), showing that it is a suitable fertilizer for promoting plant yield. In another study, application of rock powder has shown to improve crop yield by 7 ± 4.3% percent across different soil types in china. However, the soil with low pH was observed to have the highest yield increase of 31 ± 6.9 percent for corn and wheat plants (Guo et al., 2023b). Surprisingly, in another study involving the application of rock powder in a sugarcane field yielded no increase in the crop yield (Holden et al., 2024). The variations in the observed effects of rock powder weathering on the yield of crops could be dependent on a number of factors such as climate, crop type, baseline soil fertility, application rate, soil microbial community and soil pH. For instance, (Holden et al., 2024) noticed that the insignificant yield performance of sugarcane in the presence of rock powder could be attributed to the plants’ performance not being limited by the nutrients supplied by the weathered rock nor by low pH. When the nutrient contents of the leaves of the plants growing in the untreated soil was examined, they discovered that it was higher than the critical level required for sugarcane during their active growing phase. This points out the impact of baseline soil fertility on the efficacy of rock powder in improving crop yield. Another key determinant of plant biomass yield under rock powder soil amendment as reported by Oliveira et al. (2025) is soil microbial community and rock powder types applied. They noticed that plant yield increase was not directly linked to the dynamics in soil fertility, rather on the microbial community and activities in the soil. Comparatively, rock powder amendment of soil has shown similar performance to chemical fertilizer in promoting plant yield. Chemical fertilizers facilitate an increase in crop yield (Ma et al., 2024), but prolonged use could cause a significant reduction in crop yield by at least 38 percent or more (Dahama, 2001; Xiong and Zhao, 2024). Rock powder amendment superseded inorganic fertilizer in its carbon sequestration potential and increased potential for enhancing soil nutrients and crop yield. In another study, a tenfold increase in rice yield over the control was reported in the rice field fertilized with basaltic rock powder. Also reported was increase in soil nutrient content and adjustment of pH from 4.33–5.13 (Shamshuddin et al., 2011). Guo et al. (2023b) reported that application of rock powder to farmland resulted in increase of 7 ± 4.3 percent in crop yield, 11 ± 4.6 percent in biomass yield and gross carbon capture of 4.31 ± 0.82 t-CO2 ha⁻¹ in low water balance regions. In soil with low pH, crop yield was as high as 31 ± 6.9 percent suggesting the importance of soil acidity in the dissolution of rock minerals wich proves soil carbon sequestration in low pH and water balance senerios. In addition, a 5-year field study has shown that maize and soybean plants growing in a rock powder fertilized soil recorded an increase of 12 and 16 percent in grain yield. Correspondingly, it equally upregulated the genes responsible for inorganic ions transportation in the roots of the plants (Beerling et al., 2024).

Similarly, plants-related carbon sinks primarily occur via photosynthesis and absorption of base cations during silicate rock powder weathering. Uptake of base cation by plants and its release during plant biomass decomposition contribute significantly to soil carbon sequestration and could sequester as high as 7.9 ± 4.1 Tg CO₂ yr.⁻¹ (Song et al., 2018; Figure 6). Increase in the availability and uptake of nutrients released during rock powder weathering promotes increase in plant above and belowground biomass, photosynthesis, nutrient release to soil microbial community, microbial and litter turnover. This increase in the biological activities of plants and associated microbes enhances the transformation of organic matter into soil organic carbon. In some scenarios, forest trees under rock amendment could sequester as high as 32 percent increase in carbon dioxide that could be stored as organic carbon in the plant biomass (Song et al., 2018). Therefore, through carbon fixation, plants absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide as well as enhance the process of rock weathering. Interactively, while rock powder amendment could supply the needed plant nutrients, plants, on the other hand, can directly and/or indirectly increase rock powder weathering through rhizosphere effects and/or the secretion of organic acids that chemically and physically mineralize or dissolve rock minerals (Guo et al., 2023a). Evidently, application of rock powder to the soil has shown to enhance crop yield increase and carbon sequestration, and it is probable that we will see increasing application of rock powder in the field, as well as possible substitution and/or supplementation of inorganic fertilizer with rock powder to increase crop productivity and sequester carbon in the coming years.

Figure 6

Though, it is plausible to propose and/or advocate for rock powder partial substitution of inorganic fertilizer given the evidence presented so far, however, it has been unraveled using shrinking core model analysis that it will take approximately 10⁶ to 10⁷ years to achieve a complete dissolution of rock powder minerals. While complete dissolution of rock powder takes decades, the majority of the base cations relevant for crop nutrition are released within the first 1 to 3 years. And the rock powder dissolution rate varies from soil to soil, and region to region (Buckingham and Henderson, 2024; Hangx and Spiers, 2009). Additionally, rock powder tends to undergo slower release of ions into soluble forms. In some cases, some of the released ions/nutrients may not be readily available for plants uptake due to processes involving sorption of nutrients to minerals, polymerization of SiO₂, and formation of secondary minerals that facilitate reabsorption of the released ions (Buckingham et al., 2022). These conditions often makes the released nutrients unavailable for plants uptake, thereby necessitating the application of inorganic fertilizer to supply the needed immediate nutrients for plants growth. Another, issue worthy of note, is the slight and/or negligible differences in the nutrients compositions of rock powder and untreated agricultural soil. In most cases these nutrient compositional differences are not high enough to guarantee the complete dependence on rock powder for meeting the nutritional needs of plants, let alone encouraging the replacement of inorganic fertilizer with rock powder application (Table 3). To put it in perspective, a 5-year field trial of basaltic rock powder application used for tropical sugarcane production on acidic soil revealed that soil acidity rendered the rock enhanced weathering ineffective especially in carbon dioxide removal. Also noticed was the insignificant contributions of the rock powder to increasing crop yield, soil organic matter or the plants biomass carbon stock over the 5 years’ timeframe. These observations were attributed to the formation of insufficient secondary minerals that retard organic matter decomposition as well as the nutrients released by the rock powder not being limiting for plant growth and development (Holden et al., 2024). Therefore, soil pH level is a key determinant on the performance of rock powder in carbon sequestration and plant nutrient release. Henceforth, caution is required not to overpromise on the contributions of rock powder to plants nutrition, productivity and soil carbon sequestration.

Nonetheless, beside the positive effects of rock powder in promoting crop yield and carbon capture via photosynthesis another mechanism it influence plant-mediated carbon sequestration is through phytolith formation. This will be discussed in the next section.

6 Rock powder in plant mediated carbon sequestration—a case of phytolith occluded carbon

Phytolith formation depends on plant uptake of silicon. While weathering of rock powder provides plant-available silicic acid; the occluded carbon comes from photosynthesis. During photosynthesis, plants convert carbon dioxide to organic carbon compounds (sugars) that are transported from the site of manufacture (leaves) to storage organs in the plants and rhizosphere via root exudation. Mechanistically, during this process, the plants also physically and chemically enhance rock weathering (Guo et al., 2023b), resulting in an increase in nutrient uptake and shoot silicon concentrations (Kelland et al., 2020). The accumulation of silicon in the plants, eventually, will precipitate into microscopic particles in the leaf epidermal cells, root tissues, and in other plant organs, forming an aggregate of siliceous particles known as phytoliths. These aggregates of phytoliths could surround and trap plant photosynthates, preventing them from undergoing decomposition or mineralization. These phytolith-carbon aggregated particles are called phytolith occluded carbon (PhytOC). As carbon stabilization agents within plants, they play a significant role in carbon sequestration and the mitigation of climate change. Study has shown that the application of basaltic rock powder increases the concentrations of phytolith and PhytOC carbon contents of rice plants and recorded approximately 150 percent increase in phytolith carbon sequestration (Guo et al., 2015; Figure 7). Indeed, rice plants are hyperaccumulator of silicon with roots active protein transporters (OsLsi1 and OsLsi2) responsible for silicon uptake from soil (Xu X. et al., 2024), thus justifying the high amount of silicon uptake that participated in the formation of phytolith occluded carbon as reported by Guo et al. (2015).

Figure 7

PhytOC plays an important role in carbon sequestration and in reducing the atmospheric carbon concentrations. A growing body of evidence has been collected on the contributions of PhytOC in carbon sequestration. For instance, Yang et al. (2015), while comparing the distribution of PhytOC stock across bamboo leaves, branches, and culm, observed that the leaf of the plant has the highest phytolith occluded carbon concentrations, followed by the branches, and the least is the culm. When these carbon trapping structures are formed and sequester carbon, they remain stored in the plants until the biomass is harvested. The harvested biomass could be processed into wood or undergo decomposition. Here, the latter, after decomposition of the plant biomass, gets released into the soil, which then stores as part of the soil carbon pool. As another example, analysis of PhytOC and phytoliths in litter layers from different forest types have shown that litter from bamboo forest stores as high as 15.4 Tg phytolith above other forest types. Bamboo forest equally contributed about 60 percent of PhytOC to carbon sequestration (Zhang et al., 2019). While studies involving soil amendment with rock powder are evaluating their impact on carbon sequestration via PhytOC formation, studies utilizing other soil amendments like biochar are lagging behind in understanding plant PhytOC contributions to carbon sequestration and require further studies. A study evaluating the impacts of biochar and silicon fertilizer application, for instance, showed that PhytOC in the plants increased with silicon fertilizer concentration, irrespective of the amount of biochar applied. But soil PhytOC concentration, on the other hand, increased with increase in biochar concentration, suggesting that application of biochar and silicon could promote carbon sequestration by plants and soil via the formation of PhytOC (Huang et al., 2020).

It is noteworthy to mention that PhytOC is indeed a long term biogeochemical terrestrial carbon sinking channel and should be taken into account in assessing the long-term forest and agricultural soil carbon budget. Analysis of aboveground phytolith and phytolith occulated carbon across various ecosystems (grassland, cropland, forest and bamboo) has shown that phytolith content of bamboo plants (114 g/kg) is the highest, followed by cropland plants (58.56 g/kg), next being grassland plants with phytolith contents of 26.03 g/kg and the least is forest plants (4.70 g/kg). PhytOC on the other hand, showed a different distribution across the various biomes with bamboo plant recording the highest PhytOC of 3.7 g/kg, followed by grassland plants (0.98 g/kg), the next being cropland plants (0.82 g/kg) and the least is found in forest plants (0.08 g/kg; Cheng et al., 2023; Figure 8). This study showed that different plants and different ecosystems exhibit differences in their uptake of silicon from the soil as well as formation of phytolith and phytolith occluded carbon. Here, bamboo plants tend to be a hyperaccumulator of silicon and form the highest phytolith and PhytOC contents above all other plants. This reveals the carbon sinking capacity of various plant ecosystems and warrants a detailed study in optimizing their management to increase their carbon sequestration. Interestingly, while bamboo may have the highest PhytOC content, it equally have high turnover rate due to its growth and harvesting cycle. Whereas, forest that appeared to be the least in PhytOC content (0.08 g/kg), has the merit of longer residence time and stability. This is due to forest plants slow growing process, larger biomass and tissues to form phytolith and decrease biomass harvesting rates.

Figure 8

Intriguingly, while the above study examined the aboveground phytolith and PhytOC contents across different ecosystems, it did not account for the belowground part of the plants. In a grassland, the PhytOC contents of the grasses belowground were significantly higher than that of the aboveground biomass. The belowground biomass concentration of PhytOC is 0.67 g kg^−1, and that of the aboveground biomass is 0.20 g kg⁻¹. In total, the belowground biomass PhytOC could reach as high as 12.50 kg ha⁻¹ (Qi et al., 2017). This shows that belowground plant biomass may accumulate more PhytOC than the aboveground biomass and, as such, should be investigated further across other ecosystems. Therefore, since membrane protein transporters for silicon uptake in plants, for instance, using rice as a case study are abundant within the root systems of the plants and this could probably explain the silicon preferential allocation to the roots biomass. Another study has equally reported an increased phytolith and phytolith occluded carbon in belowground plant biomass over the aboveground part, supporting the foregoing that it is imperative to factor in belowground production of PhytOC in quantification and estimation of carbon sequestration by phytoliths (Qi et al., 2021). In light of the foregoing, bamboo plants are good for the accumulation of phytolith and phytolith occluded carbon owing to their rapid growth rate, biomass accumulation rate, and nutrient uptake capacity. These plants, according to Debnath et al. (2023) tend to have high leaf PhytOC, followed by culm and then branches. And could cumulatively record as high as 53.8 kg ha⁻¹ PhytOC contents in their biomass. Anjum and Nagabovanalli (2021) evaluated the aboveground biomass of rice plants for phytolith occluded carbon and carbon sequestration through phytoliths. They reported that differences in rice variety affects the amount of phytolith occluded carbon formed and noticed that long periods of rice plant growth or rice plants that take a long time to mature recorded the highest PhytOC as compared to short or medium duration rice varieties.

These findings above describe the contributions of plants to carbon sequestration through the formation of phytolith occluded carbon, and are a promising mechanism for attaining decarbonization initiatives. However, it is noteworthy to mention that despite the growing evidence on plant mediated carbon sequestration through phytolith occluded carbon formation, the question of its stability in the soil is a subject of concern, as environmental factors, soil chemistry, plant and bedrock types, and silicon concentration in the soil affect its stability and carbon preservation (Liu et al., 2025).

7 Limitations and challenges associated with rock powder amendment to plant mediated carbon sequestration

As intuitively appealing as rock powder amendment is in the actualization of carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere and in improving soil condition and fertility, one may assume that this zero-emission technology could be by now widely in use; however, several limitations are challenging the use of rock powder in the decarbonization initiative. These limitations include the high cost of mining and processing (crushing and grinding) as well as transporting the rock powder to the site of use, since in most cases the site of rock deposition could be far from the arable land where it is needed (Eufrasio et al., 2022). In fact, the environmental impact of this technology is challenged with rock grinding rather than mining, which leads to increased energy consumption and production of greenhouse gases that may offset the overall benefit of the carbon capture potential of the rock powder. But if there could be a means to transition to a low carbon energy during the process of grinding, it could improve the sustainability of the rock powder supply chain and be used in carbon removal from the atmosphere as well as a source of fertilizer. This low carbon energy fuel source could be used to generate electricity for operating the grinding machines as well as the transport systems for hauling rock powder from one point to another. Developing this low carbon energy technology will require a heavy investment in the power sector since the current demand for electrical energy is high and the supply is insufficient to accommodate mining, grinding, and haulage of rock powder (Beerling et al., 2020; Eufrasio et al., 2022). However, it is worthy to note that if renewable energy is used for grinding of silicate rocks, the net energy balance will be positive. But if coal is used, it may offset between 30 to 50 percent of carbon gains.

Be that as it may, another remarkable consequence of rock powder application could be alteration in the albedo effects of the amended soil. Albedo effects, which measure the amount of absorbed radiation relative to the reflected amount of solar radiation, might be affected by rock powder application. To illustrate, shiny surfaces (snow, ice, glass-like material) have a high albedo effect as they reflect a large amount of sun rays back into space with less heat absorption, resulting in increased environmental cooling. However, surfaces that are dark in color have the tendency to absorb a high amount of radiation. An increase in absorption of radiation promotes an increase in environmental and climate temperature. These dark colored surfaces contribute to climate warming and other environmental effects, which affect the ecosystem (Cook et al., 1981; Goudie, 2009). Therefore, continuous application of basaltic rock powder might alter the soil albedo effect since it might change the color and reflectivity of the soil, thus requiring further studies. While occasionally a certain rock may be in high abundance for continuous use in the field, its chemical composition might make it less suitable for carbon sequestration, as some rock minerals might contain high amounts of heavy metals that could bioaccumulate in the food chain, causing harm to humans, animals, plants, and the environment. Some rock sources with the right chemical compositions, like wollastonite, may not be in abundance for large scale deployment. These uncertainties might hamper its deployment as a soil amendment (Abdalqadir et al., 2024).

In this direction, rock powder amendment of soil could exert a considerable impact on the soil environment, which could disrupt the ecosystem function. For instance, Dupla et al. (2024), while evaluating the impact of rock powder amendment of soil either 1 year or 1 month post application on a vineyard field, observed that it significantly increased soil respiration and soil sodium concentration. The observed increase in soil respiration leading to carbon dioxide emission from the amended soil could result in the depletion or mineralization of soil organic carbon, thereby limiting the efficacy of the amendment in carbon sequestration. Also observed was an increase in soil sodification, which raises the salinity levels of the soil, resulting in the risk of inducing stress on plants and disrupting soil fertility. Another study has reported an increase in soil sodium concentration following rock powder amendment (Gaillardet et al., 1999; Swoboda et al., 2021). Sodium accumulation can cause severe damage to soil organisms by inducing osmotic stress. Another common effect of weathered rock powder is its tendency to increase calcium and magnesium concentration due to an increase in soil pH, but with a negative effect in decreasing the availability of micronutrients such as zinc and manganese (Buss et al., 2024). This usually affects the availability of adequate plants’ nutrients for plants uptake. Evidently, rock powder amendment has equally been shown to increase soil carbon emission, and this could be linked to their effects in promoting the availability of silicon, increasing soil pH, which favors microbial activity and mineralization of dissolved organic carbon concentrations (Yan et al., 2023).

Additionally, other challenges bedeviling the application of rock powder in soil for promoting carbon sequestration involves non-technical obstacles and environmental risks. The non-technical obstacles include pressure on rural infrastructure caused by the large scale transportation of rock powder, the public’s acceptance of novel geological engineering technology (social licence) and the high cost of carbon credit verification (MRV – Measurement, Reporting and Verification). Eutrophication of aquatic ecosystem is yet another environmentatl risk associated with rock powder application. As previously mentioned Deng et al. (2023) and Vanderkloot and Ryan (2023), increasing the surface area through grinding of rock to a particle sizes less than 45 μm that enhance the rate of weathering and release of nutrients could result in large amount of alkalinity or nutrients to flow into the river, leading to eutrophication of aquatic ecosystem or possibly changing significantly the pH of the water body. In fact, increase in water body alkalinity due to enhanced rock weathering has been implicated in limiting phytoplankton photosynthetic ability (Hein, 1997) resulting in altered food web. For illustration purposes, though not a case of rock powder dissolution and leaching, it was reported of the pollution of the Mississippi river by run-off from agricultural fertilized farm land across the Mississippi basin in Gulf of Mexico, killing aquatic lives in the water (Diaz and Rosenberg, 2008; Rabalais et al., 1996). Nutrient leaching into water bodies stimulate the proliferation of algae which rapidly consume the available dissolve oxygen in water, leading to the development of anaerobic conditions that result in the death of aquatic organisms. Readers interested in understanding further the environmental consequences of enhanced rock weathering should refer to Levy et al. (2024).

Since our rapidly expanding view of rock powder amendment in carbon sequestration and soil fertility management is confronted with several setbacks as discussed above, it is therefore imperative for agriculturists and environmentalists to critically factor in both ecological, economic, and geochemical properties of the rock as well as soil chemistry in proper evaluation of the risk assessment and environmental impacts of the rock powder soil amendment initiative. Research should be designed to ensure that a safe and ecofriendly carbon capture strategy is implemented with adequate checks and balances for environmental sustainability and ecological integrity, while pursuing climate change control initiatives.

8 Conclusion and perspectives

The growing body of evidence discussed in this study has shown that application of rock powder to the soil is indeed a suitable and highly effective carbon capture technology. To comprehensively understand the potential of silicate rock powder in promoting plant productivity and carbon dioxide removal, certain methodological approaches are required. These approaches are long-term field trial/monitoring, isotopic tracing and modeling. With an emphasis on the need for long-term monitoring, Vienne et al. (2022) reported that application of basalt to an alkaline soil growing potato plants did not show any significant change in the total inorganic carbon sequestered in the soil. An observed effect was a slight and/or negligible improvement in the potato yield and growth. Notably, the duration of the study was 99 days and is indeed too short to record any detectable amount of precipitated inorganic carbon (carbonate). Hence long term monitoring that will span multiple years to capture true sequestration is required. As another example and to the best of our knowledge, Knapp et al. (2023) is among a few studies that have successfully applied isotopic tracing in monitoring carbon dioxide removal at enhanced weathering sites by measuring the radioactivity of calcium carbonate contained in water that drained the slag deposit. Surprisingly, similar study involving basaltic rock powder is lagging behind. Thus necessitating the application of isotopic tracing in enhance rock weathering as well as in studying its role in carbon sequestration and plant nutrients release/uptake dynamics. Importantly, studies involving modeling of the dissolution rate of rock powder mineral under varying soil physiochemical conditions, cation residence time and reactivity in soil, soil fluid flux/hydrological dynamics, plant nutrient uptake and transport of carbonate across terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems are required.

Although, some of the studies described above reported negligible contributions of rock powder to improving crop yield and carbon sequestration, others, for instance, Skov et al. (2024) has reported a significant higher yield of spring Oat cultivated in soil amended with crushed basalt under temperate climatic condition. This study is a pointer to the need for understanding the impact of soil types (uniform Dystric Stagnosol, tropical oxisol, arid soil, highly weathered soil etc.) on the behavioral pattern of silicate rock powder during weathering and how it influence soil carbon sequestration and plants productivity. Also important is the understanding of soil pH modulation effects of rock powder on the availability of micronutrients (iron, manganese) for plants uptake. It is evident that increase in soil pH promote the bioavailability of phosphorus and other nutrients for plant uptake (Gérard, 2016), but it equally negatively affect the bioavailability of micronutrients. Therefore, the tradeoff between the benefits of rock powder in carbon sequestration, increased crop yield, soil pH modulation and micronutrient bioavailability warrant further analysis and consideration. In essence, future research should develop precision blending strategies, co-applying rock powder with other nutrients. Additionally, another area worthy of consideration is the impact of rock powder on peatlands carbon sink. So far, few studies like Klemme et al. (2022) has shown that the application of rock powder to peatland could result in the reduction by 18 to 60 percent in carbon uptake in the soil. The study equally suggested that enhance weathering of rock powder tends to negatively altered the natural carbon cycle process in the peatland soil. Rock powder application supports increase in organic matter decomposition and emission of carbon dioxide from the soil. Therefore, since microbial activities and metabolism are the key drivers of carbon biogeochemistry, researchers should shift focus from quantifying the amount of carbon absorbed by the rock powder minerals during weathering to understanding how enhanced weathering could influence microbial mineralization of organic carbon in the soil. This will help toward achieving carbon emission control initiative. And by taking into account carbon dioxide uptake by enhance weathering and plants during photosynthesis as well as carbon emission by microbes and plant during respiration under the influence silicate rock powder amendment, conclusion could be reached on the merit of using rock powder as a natural none emission technology for controlling greenhouse gas emission.

All in all, rock powder amendment of soil with its inherent nutrients composition and soil pH modulation has shown to be a suitable soil amendment for improving crop performance and mitigating greenhouse gas emission.

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