The Carbon Trends and Management project creates science and tools that help partners identify carbon management opportunities and vulnerabilities as they make management decisions.
SCIENCE APPLICATIONS
The Carbon Trends and Management theme focuses on the use of cutting-edge science, both in the field and using pre-existing public databases, to help partners consider carbon management in their work. Evidence-based ecosystem carbon management can support many goals, including climate adaptation, flood and fire mitigation, and the provisioning of ecosystem services. Carbon is critical to how ecosystems work and what they provide to people, so it is important to identify how land-use change, management decisions, and disturbances impact carbon stocks and sequestration rates.
"What I enjoy most is that I feel I can apply what I learn in this course directly to my property and in turn share it with other landowners around Vermont."
- Tim Stout, Northham Forest Carbon, participant in the Carbon Adaptation Planning and Practices online course
2022 SPOTLIGHTS
PACIFIC NORTHWEST AND SOUTH ATLANTIC SOIL CARBON ASSESSMENTS
We published two regional soil carbon assessments in peer-reviewed journals, featuring the Pacific Northwest and South Atlantic states. Each assessment identified the direction, magnitude, and variability in soil carbon change due to land use change, forest management, or disturbances, within the context of a unique ecoregion. These were the third and fourth in a series of similar assessments.
SOIL CARBON ASSISTANCE TO THE FOREST SERVICE
We assisted the Forest Service Washington Office and National Forest staff with monitoring in the field, implementing tools developed with the ecoregional soil carbon assessments, and creating a training module on Soil Carbon and Climate Change for a National Soils NEPA Training series.
EDUCATIONAL CONTENT FOR MSU FOREST CLIMATE & CARBON PROGRAM
We partnered with the Michigan State University Forest Carbon and Climate Program (FCCP) to develop regionally-specific online learning modules to supplement FCCP’s Understanding Forest Carbon Management course. Module topics include regional forest background, climate change trends and effects, carbon storage, climate impacts by forest type, and regionally appropriate carbon management adaptation strategies for the Pacific Northwest, Northeast, and Southeast.
COMING UP
Soil carbon assessments for the Northeast and Central Hardwoods ecoregions will be completed. A project with The Nature Conservancy in Wisconsin will be exploring carbon management tradeoffs and opportunities with ecosystem restoration in forests, woodlands, and wetlands. We’re also synthesizing carbon management science into a literature database, actionable summaries, and training resources for land managers to incorporate carbon into multiple-use management objectives. We will continue to work with the MSU FCCP to create joint products.
