Funding for the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture supports the work of scientists researching two approaches to natural carbon dioxide removal. Enhanced weathering – applying finely ground alkaline rocks to soils to accelerate natural chemical reactions that convert carbon dioxide into stable bicarbonates. The Yale team is also studying how restoring coastal ecosystems, foremost, mangroves, can drive more rock weathering, providing carbon dioxide removal. Healthy mangrove forests have been shown to improve coastal resiliency and Yale researchers’ end goal is to outline a path to billions of tons of marine carbon removal in the oceans, starting with processes like mangrove restoration that directly benefit local communities.
The two bodies of study demonstrate the feasibility of using natural solutions for carbon sequestration and unlocking new carbon markets for sustainable deployment. These natural climate solutions could remove billions of tons of carbon dioxide annually while delivering co-benefits such as soil fertility and increased crop yields, biodiversity gains, and protection of coastal communities and ecosystems.
When Dr. Noah Planavsky talks about climate change, he often starts with rocks.
It may seem like an unlikely place to look for solutions to one of the world's most complex challenges, but for billions of years, rocks have helped regulate Earth's climate, naturally reacting with carbon dioxide and helping remove it from the atmosphere. Today, Dr. Planavsky and his colleagues at the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture (YCNCC) are asking a simple but ambitious question: can that natural process be accelerated to help address climate change?
Thanks to a $10.5 million grant from Fund for Science and Technology (FFST), Yale researchers are advancing work on enhanced weathering, an emerging field of carbon removal research that uses finely crushed alkaline rock to speed up a process that already occurs in nature. “It is becoming increasingly clear that carbon dioxide removal is necessary to meet climate goals, but it is also becoming increasingly clear that traditional carbon markets haven't been very effective tools in this fight,” Dr. Planavsky noted.
For Dr. Planavsky, this work is a natural evolution of a question he’s been asking all his life. Growing up in Wisconsin alongside the Mississippi River and surrounded by agriculture, he remarked that he’s “seen how beautiful natural spaces can be ruined by poor land stewardship,” but he’s also “seen how natural spaces can recover when we reimagine old infrastructure to help communities.”
His research builds on an agricultural practice that farmers have used for generations, spreading crushed rocks on croplands to reduce soil acidity and improve growing conditions. Enhanced weathering scales and expands this approach, applying alkaline rocks, such as limestone or basalt, that react with carbon dioxide in soils. As the rock breaks down, carbon is transformed into dissolved bicarbonate, which eventually makes its way to the ocean and is stored for thousands of years.
For researchers, the promise goes beyond carbon removal alone. Early studies suggest enhanced weathering improves soil health, increases the availability of nutrients for crops, and reduces reliance on some conventional fertilizers. If successful at scale, it could create benefits for both farmers and the climate.
Yale researchers have launched more than 25 field trials across eight states, partnering with U.S. farmers to test this approach and turning parts of active farming operations into living laboratories. As researchers study how crushed alkaline material interacts with soil, groundwater, and streams, the farmers are treating it as an experiment of their own, focusing on questions familiar to any agriculture worker: Will it improve soil health? Will it increase yields? And will the benefits last?
“I think too often the academic community focuses on documenting problems, forgetting that a main part of our mission is to fix problems and make the world a better place,” Dr. Planavsky noted. “What’s different about the grant from FFST is that it is solutions focused. Of course, we want to learn and better document how carbon dioxide removal pathways are working (or not working!), but we also want to make sure that this research moves beyond academia and is making a positive impact,” he remarked.
Early results have given both researchers and farmers reason for optimism. After applying basalt across hundreds of acres, researchers found significant yield increases across a range of crops. While researchers continue to study the long-term impacts, results like this help explain why farmers are paying attention. Rather than asking farmers to choose between environmental stewardship and economic productivity, enhanced weathering can help accomplish both simultaneously.
One of the field's biggest challenges is measurement. Scientists need reliable ways to determine exactly how much carbon is removed from the atmosphere and how long it remains stored. As a part of this work, Yale researchers are developing new monitoring tools, analytical techniques, and modeling approaches to establish the scientific foundation needed to evaluate enhanced weathering accurately and rigorously at scale. The focus on foundational science is core to FFST's approach: supporting researchers as they build the evidence needed to move ambitious ideas from concept toward impact.
“The grant is, first and foremost, focused on moving our understanding of atmospheric carbon dioxide removal pathways forward and answering persistent scientific questions,” Dr, Planavsky said. “But importantly, the goal is not just to document how carbon dioxide removal pathways can be complicated in the real world – it’s to find solutions to the problems that prevent carbon removal practices from being effective and scalable,” he added.
Yale’s work is already reaching beyond academia. Researchers are collaborating with agricultural partners, carbon removal organizations, and industry leaders to translate what they’re learning into broader real-world deployments. The result is research designed not just to understand whether enhanced weathering works, but how it can become a viable solution to transform the agricultural industry with tangible climate benefits.
Like many projects supported by FFST, the research is driven by a bold scientific question with potentially far-reaching implications. For Dr. Planavsky and the farmers working alongside him, the goal is not simply to understand a natural process. It is to determine how that process can be applied practically, and what role it can play in addressing the planet’s most pressing challenges.
At scale, enhanced weathering has the potential to become a powerful climate solution, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while improving soil health and agricultural productivity. The Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture is helping answer the scientific questions needed to understand that potential and put it into practice in partnership with farmers. Together, they are exploring how one of Earth's oldest natural processes could help build a more sustainable future for everyone.
Research at the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture builds on natural Earth systems to develop rigorously proven, scalable pathways for natural carbon removal. By unlocking new learnings, scientists are bolstering natural carbon solutions that yield positive impact in agriculture, along coastlines, and across Earth’s climate.