Research
Adding limestone to farmland is helping to store more carbon dioxide than it releases
Earth.com · By Eric Ralls ·
The Brief
- Spreading limestone on farm fields is commonly assumed to release carbon dioxide, and climate accounting rules treat it that way.
- A new study covering the past century in the Mississippi River Basin finds that the limestone added to farmland stores more carbon dioxide than it releases.
- The source coverage is an Earth.com article from 2026-11-10 reporting on this study.
Why it matters
If limestone application stores more carbon dioxide than it releases, current climate accounting for liming farmland may be misstating its carbon effect.
Who’s affected
- soil and agricultural scientists
- anyone with a stake in climate accounting for farmland
- #limestone
- #carbon dioxide
- #farmland
- #soil carbon
- #climate accounting
Limestone is rock made partly of carbon, so spreading it on farm fields sounds like a way to put carbon dioxide into the air. Climate accounting rules treat it that way. However, a new study finds that, over the past century in the Mississippi River Basin, the limestone that…