Good question, the research we are doing on increasing the durability of wood is separate from the research on photosynthesis. The durability of wood largely has to do with the ratio of lignin to cellulose. Historically organizations focused on increasing growth rate for bioenergy have worked on changing that ration to create fast growing but less dense wood. That's different from what we are doing at Living Carbon. We don't expect to see increases in wood durability from photosynthesis-enhancement alone.
Biochemically our photosynthesis-enhancement strategy is a metabolic bypass pathway that reduces the energy that goes towards photorespiration allowing for more energy to go toward growth. When talking to investors I sometimes say it's like putting the plant into ketosis :) albeit that is not the perfect analog.
When it comes to improving the durability of wood, one of our approaches focuses on improving the ability of trees to accumulate and store metals in their lignin. Metals act as natural fungicides and slow the decomposition of trees. Other ideas include some of the world the Salk Institute has done on increasing Suberin production. Here's a paper that demonstrates how a doubling in nickel concentration in norwegian spruce led to slower decomposition: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09291...
The crazy thing here is that there is SO MUCH precedent from accumulation of metals by trees in nature. In certain parts of New Caledonia a tree called pycnandra acuminata thrives in ultramorph aka Nickel rich soil. It has up to 24% nickel sap concentration and can be tapped for nickel citrate actually.
Is there a danger of the trees themselves becoming hazardous waste if they accumulate the wrong kinds of metals? Though I suppose that could be a feature if it creates an incentive to harvest the trees and then sequester them in such a way that they won't be a problem for humans in any conceivable timeframe.
You guys are amazing. This has been one of my wet dreams as far as a natural carbon capture mechanisms go. It always seemed like a no-brainer to me. I wonder how far this can go? I know it's a fantasy, but imagine we can get sequoias to grow at a monstrous pace? It'll be a massive boon to CO2 draw-down, which is the real issue since not a single country on earth is on track to meeting 2050 Paris Accord goals. Good luck guys and hopefully maybe one day in the future we may partner on project. Keep on rockin'!
This seems like good work, and engineering trees to sequester hazardous metals, or to (e.g.) tolerate nickel-rich olivine soil additions will be a net good. Planting trees costs little.
But if we are interested in mass carbon capture, there may be more value per dollar invested in pumping surface water down to very deep ocean depths. Such pumps could be driven directly by floating wind turbines, maybe without need for expensive electrical components, and could also raise deep, cold, neutral water to the surface to help mediate acidification and high-temperature coral bleaching.
Probably we should be seeding both, along with lots of others, and see which ones achieve more. We will probably be surprised by the results.
Edit: To be clear, there may be much more value here in the other things they are doing than in increased carbon capture, and we should be evaluating the work more on the other things. If they capture carbon, too, that is good.
Biochemically our photosynthesis-enhancement strategy is a metabolic bypass pathway that reduces the energy that goes towards photorespiration allowing for more energy to go toward growth. When talking to investors I sometimes say it's like putting the plant into ketosis :) albeit that is not the perfect analog.
When it comes to improving the durability of wood, one of our approaches focuses on improving the ability of trees to accumulate and store metals in their lignin. Metals act as natural fungicides and slow the decomposition of trees. Other ideas include some of the world the Salk Institute has done on increasing Suberin production. Here's a paper that demonstrates how a doubling in nickel concentration in norwegian spruce led to slower decomposition: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09291...
The crazy thing here is that there is SO MUCH precedent from accumulation of metals by trees in nature. In certain parts of New Caledonia a tree called pycnandra acuminata thrives in ultramorph aka Nickel rich soil. It has up to 24% nickel sap concentration and can be tapped for nickel citrate actually.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45398434