Nature provides ecosystem benefits that include cleansing water of harmful pollutants, helping maintain biodiversity, and regulating climate by keeping carbon out of the atmosphere and in a forest’s soils and the trunks of its trees. 

CESD scientists are leading research on nature-based solutions for helping mitigate climate change through decarbonization. We are examining how wetland restoration can help decrease atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations and slow climatic and environmental change while providing additional ecosystem services to coastal communities. 

Our researchers are investigating the ideal combinations of rock types and environmental conditions to enhance the ability of agricultural soils to absorb carbon dioxide through the natural enhanced-weathering process. Sprinkling ground-up rocks on agricultural lands can take advantage of this weathering process to convert large amounts of atmospheric CO2 into a stable mineral. In mineral form the carbon is locked away for millennia. They are also developing high-fidelity process-based models to help operationalize enhanced weathering applications by systematically investigating the physical, chemical, and biological conditions that enhance weathering rates.

Additionally, CESD experts develop advanced models to portray how ecosystems function naturally to cycle carbon under different climate and disturbance scenarios.