Fertilizer boosts soil’s ability to lock away carbon

New analysis of data and samples from Rothamsted’s Broadbalk long term experiment

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Rothamsted Research

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image: 

Aerial view of the 183 year-old Broadbalk winter wheat plot experiment at Rothamsted, Hertfordshire, UK

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Credit: Rothamsted Research

The 180-year experiment at Rothamsted — the world’s longest-running agricultural trial — has revealed that long-term application of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilisers can significantly increase the amount of carbon stored in farmland soils, helping to mitigate climate change.

An international team of scientists led by Zhejiang University, China, together with partners at Rothamsted and the University of Bangor, analysed samples from the Broadbalk Classical Experiment, which has been growing winter wheat continuously since 1843, and found that plots receiving nitrogen and phosphorus fertilisers contained up to 28% more soil organic carbon than those left unfertilised.

The study, published in Nature Geoscience, combined radiocarbon tracing, metagenomics and metabolomics to offer new insights into how fertilisers influence the complex chemistry and microbial life that control carbon storage in soil.

“Soil organic carbon is critical for climate regulation sustainable food production and soil health, but its decline in many agricultural soils has been deeply concerning,” said Dr Andy Gregory, one of the co-authors of the study. “Our findings show that long-term mineral fertilisation can actually enhance soil carbon sequestration, provided it’s managed carefully to minimise other unwanted impacts.”

The research found that nitrogen and phosphorus acted in distinct ways. Phosphorus alone boosted microbial activity and respiration — processes that release carbon — meaning that although microbial biomass increased, relatively little of it was converted into stable, long-lived forms of carbon. Nitrogen fertilisation, by contrast, improved the efficiency with which microbes transformed plant material into more persistent “mineral-associated” carbon.

When applied together, nitrogen and phosphorus fertilisers produced the strongest effect: enhancing plant growth, promoting the conversion of short-lived “labile” carbon into more stable forms, and increasing both the quantity and durability of carbon stored in the soil.

A global meta-analysis by the team found similar patterns elsewhere. Across dozens of long-term fertilisation trials worldwide, nitrogen and phosphorus were associated with average soil carbon increases of 21% and 13%, respectively. The benefits appeared to fade in the first decades of use, before strengthening again after about 30 years — suggesting that soil carbon gains from fertilisation build slowly over time.

The findings, the authors say, underscore the importance of long-term research and careful nutrient management in designing climate-friendly farming systems.

Historic soil samples from the Broadbalk experiment at Rothamsted. 

The historic archive at Rothamsted contains over 300,000 soil and crop samples from long term plot experiments dating back over 180 years.  

Credit

Rothamsted Research

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Journal

Nature Geoscience

DOI

10.1038/s41561-025-01789-y 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Soil carbon sequestration enhanced by long-term nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization

 

Systemic risk in NFT markets escalates during extreme conditions, new network analysis reveals

Shanghai Jiao Tong University Journal Center

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Background and Motivation

The non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace has experienced explosive growth, emerging as a significant yet volatile digital asset class. However, the complex network of risk interdependencies among major NFT assets remains poorly understood. This research addresses a critical knowledge gap by investigating how systemic risks propagate through the NFT ecosystem, providing much-needed insights for investors and regulators navigating this rapidly evolving market.

 

Methodology and Scope

The study employs a sophisticated quantile vector autoregression (QVAR) approach to analyse eight bellwether NFT assets. Through static quantile connectedness matrices, directional connectedness heatmaps, and quantile-on-quantile matrices, the research unpacks the asymmetric, state-dependent spillovers between assets across different market conditions, offering a comprehensive view of risk transmission mechanisms within the NFT landscape.

 

Key Findings and Contributions

The analysis reveals that NFT assets demonstrate moderate but significant interconnectedness during normal market conditions, which intensifies substantially during extreme market states. This pattern indicates heightened vulnerability to event-driven volatility cascades. The research also identifies frequent role reversals among NFT assets, with individual tokens alternating between being transmitters and receivers of volatility depending on market conditions. Most notably, the study documents asymmetric spillovers that become particularly pronounced when asset pairs occupy extreme opposite quantiles.

 

Why It Matters

This research provides the first granular examination of systemic risk dynamics in the NFT marketplace, challenging conventional assumptions about risk isolation in digital assets. The findings demonstrate that NFT markets exhibit sophisticated interdependencies that amplify during stress periods, necessitating more sophisticated risk management approaches for this emerging asset class.

 

Practical Applications

• Investors can utilise these insights to construct more resilient NFT portfolios that account for tail-risk dependencies.
• Market analysts should incorporate extreme-condition scenario analysis into their NFT valuation frameworks.
• Regulatory bodies need to develop surveillance mechanisms that monitor cross-asset volatility transmission in digital markets.
• Risk managers can implement early warning systems based on quantile-specific connectedness patterns to anticipate potential cascades.

 

Discover high-quality academic insights in finance from this article published in China Finance Review International. Click the DOI below to read the full-text original!

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Journal

China Finance Review International

DOI

10.1108/CFRI-08-2024-0463 

Method of Research

News article

Article Title

Interpreting the NFT marketplace a quantile analysis of connectedness across major digital assets

 

New study reveals diverse threats from Avian E. coli

University of Surrey

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E. coli bacteria are typically harmless, but certain strains, known as Avian Pathogenic E. coli (APEC), can cause serious illness in poultry, leading to significant financial losses and animal welfare issues. New research from the University of Surrey and University of Bristol, in collaboration with Poultry Health Services, has determined why various strains of APEC behave so differently. 

The study, published in Virulence analysed a colibacillosis outbreak in turkeys in the UK, and found that a strain called ST-101 was the dominant cause of the outbreak, accounting for nearly 60% of cases. This strain of APEC had not been previously reported as the primary cause of a turkey outbreak in the UK. 

By comparing ST-101 to a variety of high-risk APEC strains, the team from Surrey, led by Dr Jai Mehat, Dr James Adams, and Professor Roberto La Ragione,  found that the ST-101, ST-95 and ST-140 strains were found to be better at invading and surviving inside chicken gut cells and immune cells (macrophages) compared to the ST-23 and ST-117 strains. However, despite being less effective at invading cells, the ST-117 strain was found to be the most lethal in an insect model of infection, suggesting that different strains cause disease differently.  

Dr Jai Mehat,  senior author of the study and Lecturer in Molecular Bacteriology at the University of Surrey, said:  

“Our research shows that a one-size-fits-all approach to controlling Avian Pathogenic E. coli (APEC) infections is not effective. Current vaccination strategies often target specific strains, but they may not protect against emerging APEC threats. Therefore, we need to develop new vaccines that can target a variety of APEC strains.” 

Professor Shahriar Behboudi, co-author and Professor in Correlates of Immune Protection at the University of Bristol, said: 

“We extrapolate that broad-spectrum control measures, including the induction of trained immunity in chickens to control diverse strains, offer more effective protection, as current vaccines typically target specific strains and may fail against emerging APEC threats.” 

Dr Sara Perez, co-author and Clinical Director at Poultry Health Services, said:  

“Infections caused by APEC are a foremost threat to farmed poultry. Increasing our surveillance of poultry flocks to better understand the presence and evolution of APEC strains, will ensure our animals’ welfare, and as a result, the safety of our food.” 

 

[ENDS] 

Notes to editors 

• Dr Jai Mehat is available for interview, please contact mediarelations@surrey.ac.uk to arrange.   

• The full paper is available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21505594.2025.2546682#abstract 

• An image of Dr Jai Mehat is available upon request.  

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Journal

Virulence

DOI

10.1080/21505594.2025.2546682 

Weak lightning in developing thunderstorms triggers deadly wildfire

Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

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image: 

The geographic location of the case in this study. The background shows the fire scene, where the intense smoke indicates extremely fierce flames. Combined with the fire source identified by local firefighters after the incident (upper right corner)—a lightning strike that penetrated the tree vertically from top to bottom—this evidence confirms the cause of the fire.

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Credit: QU Zhengyang

Lightning-induced wildfires are severe natural disasters. However, because of the regionality and random nature of lightning, there is still an incomplete understanding within the scientific community regarding the characteristics of lightning that cause fires.

 

Through comprehensive analysis of multi-source data, researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China and the University of Information Science and Technology revealed that weaker lightning during thunderstorm development can also ignite forest fires. This finding, which has recently been published in the journal Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters, is crucial for the early warning of lightning-induced fires and formulating disaster prevention strategies.

 

In this study, the researchers analyzed a severe lightning-induced fire event that took place in southwestern China on March 30, 2019, which resulted in 30 fatalities. They integrated surface meteorological data (precipitation, relative humidity, wind speed) with cloud-top brightness temperature data from the Himawari-8 satellite to reconstruct the detailed meteorological background field at the time of the fire.

 

Analysis revealed that ignition occurred during the development stage of the thunderstorm—not the mature stage as traditionally thought. The lightning frequency and intensity were lower in this phase, but the discharge characteristics were unique.

 

Through comparison with another lightning-fire case in the same region and same month but a different year, through comparison with another lightning ignited fire case that occurred in the same region in June of the same year, the study further found that negative lightning accounted for a very high proportion of fire ignitions in both cases.

 

“This research potentially shifts our conventional understanding of lightning-fire ignition mechanisms,” explains Professor Yong Xue, corresponding author of the study. “Although lightning during the developing phase of a thunderstorm is generally weaker compared to the mature phase, it may pose a higher risk in terms of igniting combustible materials because of the distinct atmospheric conditions often present during this stage, such as low precipitation, low humidity, and strong winds.”

 

This study not only deepens our understanding of the causes of such fires, but also provides new ideas for the prevention and control of lightning wildfires in mountainous areas globally.

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Journal

Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters

DOI

10.1016/j.aosl.2025.100714