Quantifying forest management impacts on soil carbon using meta-analysis, data synthesis, and remote sensing
Abstract
The impacts of forest-related land use and management on soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks have been investigated through years of primary research and review articles. This attention is justified given the importance of land use and management to greenhouse gas mitigation, soil and forest productivity, and other ecosystem services. However, there is a gap of scale and scope between site-level studies that control for sources of variation, producing high-confidence results for limited locations, and the broad reviews that offer more general conclusions. The present analysis, which is the first in a series of ecoregional soil carbon assessments, is intended to fill that gap. In this presentation, we focus on six ecoregions of the eastern United States, and integrate meta-analysis of published literature with synthesis of geo-referenced soil observations to: 1) test whether common land use and management practices quantitatively impact SOC; 2) identify key sources of variation in these effects; 3) assess how sources of variation translate to decisions about land use and management at ecoregional to landscape levels. Results corroborate general trends, such as O horizon SOC losses with harvesting and fire and SOC gains during reforestation, but provide greater detail about the influence of specific practices and site-level controls on SOC stocks and change in the study region. Results also show that: 1) harvest impacts depend upon landform and soil taxonomy; 2) harvesting forests that are recovering on previously cultivated lands decreases SOC; 3) tree biomass and SOC recovery increase concurrently during reforestation; 4) specific harvest, site preparation, and fire management practices affect the magnitude and variability of changes in SOC. Perhaps more importantly, ecoregional classification and soil taxonomy provide spatial frameworks for placing quantitative estimates of SOC stocks and changes in the geographic context of the study region, providing greater detail and specificity for individuals and institutions concerned with SOC management at more localized levels. These results are presently being developed into state-level policy recommendations, while ongoing work by our team and additional collaborators is expanding this project across three additional ecoregions of the U.S.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.B22C..05N
- Keywords:
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- 0439 Ecosystems;
- structure and dynamics;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 0480 Remote sensing;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 1605 Abrupt/rapid climate change;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 6620 Science policy;
- POLICY SCIENCES & PUBLIC ISSUES