Fig Trees Convert Carbon Dioxide into Stone
Scientists discover remarkable sequestration
and symbiosis in fig trees, pointing to fine-
tuning while raising questions about long-age
geological assumptions and climate projections
Go Fig-ure! How Fig Tree Carbon Sequestration
Raises Questions on Carbon Dating Assumptions
by Dr. Sarah Buckland-Reynolds
In a remarkable discovery that has significant implications on carbon dating approaches, researcher Mike C. Rowley from the University of Zurich recently presented how fig trees sequester carbon in mineral form both within their trunks and below the surface into the surrounding soil. This groundbreaking discovery was presented in July 2025 at the Goldschmidt conference in Prague.
Although the oxalate-carbonate pathway (where plants produce calcium oxalate that microbes convert into calcium carbonate) has been known in some tropical trees like the Iroko (Milicia excelsa), the recent discovery that fruit-bearing fig trees can do this too is novel.
While this discovery has gotten significant attention from science reporting outlets such as New Scientist, Phys.org, Science Daily and other Science Blogs, not much reflection has been shown about the implications this discovery may have on evolutionary assumptions.
“What was really a surprise, and I’m still kind of reeling from, is that the [calcium carbonate] had really gone far deeper into the wood structures than I expected,” says Rowley, who will present the work at the Goldschmidt Conference in Prague, the Czech Republic, this week. “I expected it to be a superficial process in the cracks and weaknesses within the wood structure.” —New Scientist
Some fig trees sequester carbon in their trunks and limbs. From Science Daily.
Fig Trees Challenge Evolutionary Assumptions
Although trees in general have carbon sequestration properties where carbon is absorbed during photosynthesis and stored in bark and leaves, this new discovery indicates that fig trees take sequestration a step further: forming part of a chain of biotic matter to convert carbon into carbonate, which accumulates deep below the surface in soil.
One major implication of the observations of carbonate accumulation in soils is that it undermines fundamental assumptions involved in palaeoclimate reconstruction. Mainstream geological publications highlight that carbonate accumulation is conventionally interpreted as a proxy for global environmental change. Major transitions in carbonate composition and depositional environments are tied to evolutionary milestones and used in environmental reconstruction.
This fig tree observation complicates the uniformitarian assumption that carbonates in soil layers likely reflect ancient geological processes rather than relatively recent biological activity. Although evolutionary geologists use isotopic analysis, petrography, and stratigraphy to distinguish between primary deposition and later biological or chemical modification, this observation may confound dating models, especially in surface or near-surface contexts.
Fig Trees Scramble Dates and Mangle Models
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This conundrum raises certain important questions that may demand a review of estimated ages in regions where fig trees and other (still unknown) carbon sequestering trees exist. This could very well mean that carbonates in geological contexts may likely be misdated as older due to assumptions, despite being continually produced biologically today. The question is therefore raised: If modern trees can do this, might ancient environments have sequestered carbon biologically in ways that skew our understanding of past CO₂ levels, climate models, or carbon dating?
Another key emerging question from this fig tree finding is: What will this mean for the methods used to distinguish biologically formed vs. geologically formed carbonates in dating models? Current methods include various alternatives including Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) images, that assist researchers to distinguish inorganic precipitates from biological structures. Other petrographic analysis methods exist, including cathodoluminescence, thin section microscopy, as well as geochemical fingerprinting alternatives, using stable isotopes or trace elements.
Several limitations of these methods were already known to have existed, including diagenetic overprinting from recrystallization of biogenic carbonates leading to mixed ages, contamination and complications from heterogenous microstructures. However, the fig tree sequestration adds even more uncertainty to conventional methods. If calcium carbonate is being continually produced by living organisms like fig trees, then radiometric or stratigraphic dating of carbonate layers could be skewed, especially in tropical or semi-arid environments, where such trees thrive. Therefore, dating models must account for recent biogenic inputs.
This added complexity has significant implications, especially given the predominance of circular reasoning and widespread reliance on the assumptions of previous work to build the evolutionary narrative.
The Fig Tree Forms Part of a Finely Tuned, Resilient Earth System
Beyond the implications that Rowley et al (2025)’s observations have on the future of carbon dating, the findings from this research also show that earth’s ecosystems are resilient, self-regulating, and contain fail-safe mechanisms we have not fully understood. This points to intentional design and resilience.
Further to this, the authors describe a complex symbiotic chain involved in the process of carbon sequestration from fig trees: involving the creation of calcium oxalate crystals within the fig tree, which is then converted by fungi and specialized bacteria into calcium carbonate.
Curiously enough, the processes led by fungi and bacteria that are involved from carbon capture to storage and sequestration in fig trees do not cause the harmful impacts that are typical of fungus growth in other species. Instead, the fungi, bacteria and fig trees appear to provide mutual benefits. Fungal activity appears to be active only in sections of the fig tree that have already decayed, thus not interfering with the tree’s growth or health. The subsequent formation of the calcium carbonate adds further benefits by raising the pH of its surrounding soil, thereby improving nutrient availability and a healthier root zone. The researchers found no signs of tissue damage or disease in the fig trees studied in Kenya, even with deep carbonate deposits inside the wood.
Climate prognostications cannot possibly take into account all the factors involved.
Implications for Climate Change
In addition to furthering our understanding of symbiosis, this finding has implications on the climate change debate. In an era where political emphasis is on reducing carbon emissions, the story of the fig tree as participating in the carbon cycle in ways previously unknown also raises the question: What other organisms exist in nature fulfilling similar roles to ensure environmental balance of recycling elements? What do these observations mean for the overestimation of carbon footprints and concentration, as well as projected impacts based on Representative Concentration Pathways that exclude these processes to reduce Greenhouse Gas concentrations?
The newly discovered role of fig trees as efficient carbon sinks is becoming evident in the climate discourse through science commentaries (e.g., Science Daily’s recent article: “From air to stone: The fig trees fighting climate change”. These observations therefore call for the recalibration of climate models to more accurately depict climate system complexities.
The Fig Tree Witnesses Once Again
As we conclude, these latest findings of the fig tree remind us of the Sovereignty of Jesus over creation. The fig tree still stands symbolically as not only a testament of the sovereignty of God but displaying remarkable intelligent design. This new lesson from the fig tree should invite scientists and thinkers to consider and acknowledge the design it clearly reveals.
Just as with Jesus’ encounter with the fig tree of old, we are also left with a caution: A warning not to rely on models as ‘truth’, but be humble and willing to revise methodologies, question assumptions, and receive truth from unlikely places.
Dr. Sarah Buckland-Reynolds is a Christian, Jamaican, Environmental Science researcher, and journal associate editor. She holds the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography from the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona with high commendation, and a postgraduate specialization in Geomatics at the Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia. The quality of her research activity in Environmental Science has been recognized by various awards including the 2024 Editor’s Award from the American Meteorological Society for her reviewing service in the Weather, Climate and Society Journal, the 2023 L’Oreal/UNESCO Women in Science Caribbean Award, the 2023 ICETEX International Experts Exchange Award for study in Colombia. and with her PhD research in drought management also being shortlisted in the top 10 globally for the 2023 Allianz Climate Risk Award by Munich Re Insurance, Germany. Motivated by her faith in God and zeal to positively influence society, Dr. Buckland-Reynolds is also the founder and Principal Director of Chosen to G.L.O.W. Ministries, a Jamaican charitable organization which seeks to amplify the Christian voice in the public sphere and equip more youths to know how to defend their faith.