Grant winner works on greenhouse effect alleviation with green manure

Associate Professor Polina Kuryntseva is to receive 1.5 million rubles a year from the Russian Science Foundation – with possible prolongation.

The team of the Institute of Environmental Sciences started studying greenhouse alleviation in 2021, says Kuryntseva, “We have been studying existing technologies of greenhouse gas capture. Agriculture is one of the culprits in this problem. It so happens that soil breath is a source of emission.”

The researchers think that there is a good window of opportunity to grow green manure between August, when harvesting finishes, and the snow season, which will help capture carbon dioxide.

As for the project, the first stage is next year, when 15 green manure species will be selected and tested for CO2 capture, CO2 emission, and biomass growth. They will be tested at the Institute’s own premises, and then three or four species will be allocated for field experiments in cooperation with Kazan State Agrarian University.

“We think that this research of green manure can help us amass data to change regulations and specify coefficients of CO2 emission in the biomass of various plant species,” adds the interviewee.

She is convinced that investment in green manure will be offset by harvest increases for the agricultural business. Moreover, such cultivars will displace weeds and thus lessen the need for herbicides.

“The final result should be a specific calculation of the carbon footprint of a certain species when grown with and without green manure. We plan to prove that decrease in CO2 emission can be achieved with green manure. Companies producing over 50,000 tons of CO2 equivalent will soon be required to provide relevant reports, and for them, our research will indeed be pertinent,” concludes the Associate Professor.