“I am investigating whether wine-growing regions – or more precisely, their soils – are suitable for slowing down climate change. Soils are the Earth’s second largest carbon reservoir. If we incorporate additional carbon into the soil in the form of compost or other organic substrates, it could be bound there in the long term, thus reducing the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Soils of vineyards are potentially suitable because they are not repeatedly tilled in greater depths. In this way, the carbon can remain undisturbed in the soil.“

More on Muhammad Islam’s research in the VitiSoil project:
go.fzj.de/CO2-in-vineyard-soils

Muhammad Islam, doctoral researcher at the Institute of Bio- and Geosciences (IBG-3)