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Terrestrial enhanced weathering (EW) of silicate rocks, such as crushed basalt, on farmlands is a promising scalable atmospheric carbon dioxide removal (CDR) strategy that urgently requires performance assessment with commercial farming practices. We report findings from a large-scale replicated EW field trial across a typical maize-soybean rotation on an experimental farm in the heart of the United Sates Corn Belt over 4 y (2016 to 2020). We show an average combined loss of major cations (Ca2+ and Mg2+) from crushed basalt applied each fall over 4 y (50 t ha−1 y−1) gave a conservative time-integrated cumulative CDR potential of 10.5 ± 3.8 t CO2 ha−1. Maize and soybean yields increased significantly (P < 0.05) by 12 to 16% with EW following improved soil fertility, decreased soil acidification, and upregulation of root nutrient transport genes. Yield enhancements with EW were achieved with significantly (P < 0.05) increased key micro- and macronutrient concentrations (including potassium, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and zinc), thus improving or maintaining crop nutritional status. We observed no significant increase in the content of trace metals in grains of maize or soybean or soil exchangeable pools relative to controls. Our findings suggest that widespread adoption of EW across farming sectors has the potential to contribute significantly to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions goals while simultaneously improving food and soil security.

In recent years, a growing list of content creators have published videos announcing that they are leaving YouTube, taking a break, or reducing their upload schedule (Alexander). Many of these young creators state that their decision resulted from burnout, caused by a relentless schedule and obsession with YouTube’s algorithm and analytics— tools essential to success on this highly competitive creative platform (Srnicek). Its opaque algorithm, however, induces anxiety; an affect described as that which “arises when the subject is confronted by the desire of the Other and does not know what object he is for that desire” (Evans 12). Here, the Other is conflated as both audience and algorithm, insofar as what videos trend or are recommended is a complex merging of user-engagement and vetting by the algorithm. Attempting to discover the desire of the Other, creators examine data to speculate about what content will gain the most views. While some creators opt to chase trends and use clickbait titles, others avoid the algorithm’s detection and suppression by omitting key words known to be flagged, while others embrace defeat and instead drive their channels using drama and negative affect (Berryman and Kavka). Drawing on Lacan’s psychoanalytic clinical structures and theory of anxiety, this article examines how each of these approaches to navigating the platform represents a neurotic and sometimes perverse response to the algorithmic Other that is influenced by a neoliberal notion of creativity that privileges growth over its socially transformative power (Mould).

Functional trait distances between coexisting organisms reflect not only complementarity in the way they use resources, but also differences in their competitive abilities. Accordingly, absolute and relative trait distances have been widely used to capture the effects of niche dissimilarity and competitive hierarchies, respectively, on the performance of plants in competition. However, multiple dimensions of the plant phenotype are involved in these plant–plant interactions (PPI), challenging the use of relative trait distances to predict their outcomes. Furthermore, estimating the effects of competitive hierarchy on the performance of a group of coexisting plants remains particularly difficult since relative trait distances relate to the effects of a focal plant on another. We argue that trait distinctiveness, an emerging facet of functional diversity that characterizes the eccentric position of a species (or genotype) in a phenotypic space, can reveal the unique role played by a given individual plant in a group of competing plants. We used the model crop species Oryza sativa spp. japonica to evaluate the ability of trait distances and trait distinctiveness to predict the outcome of intraspecific PPI on the performance of single genotype and genotype mixtures. We performed a screening experiment to characterize the phenotypic space of 49 rice genotypes based on 11 above-ground and root traits. We selected nine genotypes with contrasting positions in the phenotypic space and grew them in pots following a complete pairwise interaction design. Relative distances and distinctiveness based on traits associated with light competition were by far the best predictors of the performance of single genotypes—taller genotypes that acquired resource faster being the best competitors—while absolute trait distances had no effect. These results indicate that competitive hierarchy for light dominates PPI in this experiment. Consistently, trait distinctiveness in plant height and a

Plant ecologists and molecular biologists have long considered the hypothesis of a trade-off between plant growth and defence separately. In particular, how genes thought to control the growth-defence trade-off at the molecular level relate with trait-based frameworks in functional ecology, such as the slow-fast plant economics spectrum, is unknown. We grew 49 phenotypically diverse rice genotypes in pots under optimal conditions, and we measured growth-related functional traits and the constitutive expression of 11 genes involved in plant defence. We also quantified the concentration of silicon (Si) in leaves to estimate silica-based defences. Rice genotypes were aligned along a slow-fast continuum, with fast-growing, early-flowering genotypes vs late-flowering, slow-growing genotypes. Leaf dry matter content and leaf Si concentrations were not aligned with this axis and negatively correlated with each other. Live-fast genotypes exhibited greater expression of OsNPR1, a regulator of the salicylic acid pathway that promotes plant defence while suppressing plant growth. These genotypes also exhibited greater expression of SPL7 and GH3.2 that are also involved in both stress resistance and growth. Our results do not support the hypothesis of a growth-defence trade-off when leaf Si and LDMC are considered, but they do when hormonal pathway genes are considered. We demonstrate the benefits of combining ecological and molecular approaches to elucidate the growth-defence trade-off, opening new avenues for plant breeding and crop science.