The dataset we're presenting at the Carbon Drawdown Symposium on 16 June spans multiple field sites, feedstock types, soils, and measurement approaches, collected across the last years.
Here's a glimpse of what's actually in it.
We'll hear how silicate rock powders influence nutrient uptake and heavy metal transfer into plant tissues. Whether ERW strengthens phytolith-occluded carbon, a durable soil carbon sink with residence times of up to 1,000 years that most ERW assessments don't even measure. What happens to weathered cations after they're released, where they go, which soil pools retain them, and why that determines how much alkalinity actually persists.
We'll also look at why CDR efficiency remains lower than expected in some trials, and what solid-phase geochemistry reveals about the gap between prediction and observation. Multiple approaches to characterising soil organic carbon stability will be on the table too: Rock-Eval thermal analysis, ramped pyrolysis/oxidation, sequential extraction. All testing whether ERW is genuinely shifting organic carbon toward more persistent fractions.
Twelve presentations. Nine research questions. Feedstocks ranging from basalt and peridotite to concrete. Greenhouse and field conditions both represented.
Some findings are reassuring. Some point to areas where the field still has real work to do.
That's what good measurement science looks like.
Free to attend, virtual. Registration link: https://events.carbon-drawdown.de/p/symposium