"If we can optimize the natural ability of plants to capture and accumulate carbon, we will receive fundamentally new cultures that not only have the potential to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but can also contribute to the enrichment of the soil and increase yields," Professor Joan Chorry writes on the website of the Institute .
"The global climate change is a serious threat to all living beings on the planet. Excessive amounts of atmospheric carbon increases the temperature around the world, causing deadly storms, catastrophic floods and constant droughts. And do not leave so bad inheritance to future generations. We must do the correction of the problem now.
Initiative for the use of plants (HPI) of the Solka Institute offers a bold scalable solution that can be quickly implemented.
Plants are natural carbon cleansers removing CO 2 from the atmosphere and retain it in their biomass. Unfortunately, this carbon storage is often temporary. When the harvest and other plants die and decompose, most of the carbon returns to the atmosphere, "explains on.
And now, in order to preserve more carbon in the ground, the solka scientists develop a new generation of farm crops with strong and deep roots.
The project "Removing CO 2 in a Planetary Space" (CROPS) is aimed at developing ideal Salk plants, which are reset CO 2 to the ground and hold it there.
The key to success is suberin, the fabric of the plant that consumes carbon and is already contained in the roots.
By increasing the mass of the roots, the depth and content of the suburine, the solka researchers will turn the wheat, rice, corn and other cultures in the carbon accumulating machines. In addition, more carbon in soil means that farmers will benefit from improving soil health.
This initiative recently received a large grant from the Land of Bezens, the funds will go to scientific developments: it is planned to develop the features of the features with a greater mass, a depth and resistant to the decomposition of subverin - in model plants, and then transfer them to food crops, such as corn, Soy, rice, wheat, cotton and rape.
(Source: www.salk.edu).