An Integrated Modeling Approach to Assess the Impacts of Hydrologic Management on GHG Soil Flux, Peat Accumulation and Fire Severity at the Great Dismal Swamp, Virginia and North Carolina, USA
Abstract
The Great Dismal Swamp (GDS) is a highly altered landscape, where forested peatlands (swamps) have been ditched, drained, and logged, causing the accelerated oxidation of peat soils and increasing ecosystem vulnerability to disturbance. Hydrologic conditions in the GDS, as a function of climate and/or land management, have major impacts on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, peat accumulation, and natural forest regeneration post-fire. The USGS developed the Land Use and Carbon Scenario Simulator (LUCAS) model, which integrates a state-and-transition simulation model with a carbon stock-flow model to estimate carbon sequestration, fire behavior, and vegetation response to active land management strategies within the GDS National Wildlife Refuge. To assess the associated impacts of the hydrologic regime on GHG soil flux, the USGS collected in situ CO2 and CH4 flux data, and soil moisture, monthly, from May 2015 through April 2017 at nine sites in the GDS. The USGS also collected peat cores at the same nine sites, providing carbon accumulation and vertical accretion rates. Here, we evaluate four scenarios that simulate changes in water table height as a function of hydrologic management and climatic conditions. And, by pairing the point source in situ measurements of soil moisture, GHG flux and soil chemistry with continuous data showing water table dynamics under various management scenarios, we quantify the critical components of GDS peatland restoration and management.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.B44C..02S
- Keywords:
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- 0414 Biogeochemical cycles;
- processes;
- and modeling;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0428 Carbon cycling;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0486 Soils/pedology;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES