Please join the College of Natural Resources at the J.C. Raulston Arboretum on June 19, 2012 from 4-6pm for a retirement reception honoring Dean Robert (Bob) Brown’s service to NC State University where he has been dean of the CNR since 2006.
Dr. Brown and his wife, Regan, will remain in the Raleigh area after retirement. Together they recently established the Bob and Regan Brown Endowed Scholarship in Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology to provide support for incoming freshman. The first recipient will enter the program at NC State in Fall 2012.
Come and wish him well in his retirement. All are welcome.
DETAILS & RSVP
Information on the Dean Search is available at http://go.ncsu.edu/cnrdean
On-campus interviews for three Dean of the College of Natural Resources candidates will begin next week.
Open Forums to which the entire NC State community is invited are set for:
Thursday, May 17, 2:00-3:30 pm
Janaki R.R. Alavalapati
Monday, May 21, 2:00-3:30 pm
Mary Catherine Watzin
Wednesday, May 23, 2:00-3:30 pm
Stephen S. Kelley
All forums will be located in the Jordan Hall Addition, Room 1216. Candidates will each make a brief presentation and a question and answer session will follow.
The candidates’ resumes and complete interview schedules are available at http://www.ncsu.edu/human_resources/ESS/CNR-Dean/index.php
- Join CNR on The Brickyard – April 20th 10am – 2pm
NC State’s College of Natural Resoures – The Place for Green Careers
We are especially looking forward to tomorrow’s Brickyard Celebration from 10am to 2pm. CNR has 10 student organizations, academic programs, and research groups joining the long list of exhibitors planning to be there.
The weather is predicted to be fine, so come join us! Make some new friends, play some games, learn about our degrees/research/service and our commitment to living and working sustainably on the Earth! #PackEarthDay
College of Natural Resources researchers are improving loblolly pine trees to draw in more carbon dioxide, a common greenhouse gas.
More than 50 years of genetics work to increase loblolly pine production in the Southeast has improved the trees’ ability to act as carbon sinks that mitigate climate change, according to a new study by North Carolina State University researchers from the College of Natural Resources.
“We’ve been working to create trees that grow faster and produce more wood, and what this research shows is that at the same time we’re enhancing environmental quality by scrubbing as much carbon out of the atmosphere as we possibly can,” says Dr. John King, an NC State forest ecologist and co-author of a paper published this month in the journal Forest Science.
The study estimated a 17 percent increase in stem-wood production and a 13 percent increase in carbon uptake in improved loblolly pines planted throughout the Southeast between 1968 and 2007. Three generations of enhanced seedlings were released over that 40-year period. Pine plantations cover about 15 percent of forested land in the South. Each year, almost a billion loblolly pine seedlings are planted, typically taking 25 years to reach maturity.
“We’re reaping the benefits today of work our predecessors did, and our work will affect our children and grandchildren,” says co-author Dr. Steve McKeand, NC State forestry professor and director of the Cooperative Tree Improvement Program, a public/private partnership founded in 1956.
The study marks one of the first attempts to quantify the effects of improved tree genetics on carbon sequestration across a large landscape, McKeand and King say.
The lead author of the study, Dr. Mike Aspinwall of the University of Texas at Austin, worked with McKeand and King while completing his doctorate at NC State.
- ford -
Media Contacts:
Dr. John King, 919/513-7855 or john_king@ncsu.edu
Dr. Steve McKeand, 919/886-6073 or steve_mckeand@ncsu.edu
D’Lyn Ford, News Services, 919/513-4798 or dlyn_ford@ncsu.edu
Note: An abstract of the paper follows.
“Carbon Sequestration from 40 Years of Planting Genetically Improved Loblolly Pine Across the Southeast United States”
Authors: Michael J. Aspinwall, University of Texas at Austin; Steven E. McKeand and John S. King, North Carolina State University
Published: April 2012, in Forest Science
Abstract:
Highly productive, widely deployed genetically improved loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) may play an important role in mitigating rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) via carbon (C) sequestration. To understand the role of loblolly pine genetic improvement in future C sequestration strategies, we examined the historical (1968 – 2007) impact of operationally deploying improved families of loblolly pine on productivity and C sequestration across the southeast U.S. Since 1977, nearly 100% of loblolly pine plantations in the southeast U.S. have been established with genetically improved loblolly pine. In recent years, over 400,000 ha of genetically improved loblolly pine are planted annually. Between 1968 and 2007, we estimate that genetically improved loblolly pine plantations have produced a total of 25.6 billion m3 of stem-wood volume, and have sequestered 9,865 Tg C in live and dead biomass. Our estimates also indicate that genetic improvement has resulted in an additional 3.7 billion m3 (17% increase) and 1,100 Tg C (13%) of volume production and C sequestration, respectively, relative to volume production and C sequestration with no genetic improvement. We expect that loblolly pine plantation C sequestration will increase as more productive families and clones are deployed, and as currently deployed genetic material continues to mature. Together, genetic improvement, intensive silviculture, and longer rotations aimed at producing long-lived wood products will be important tools for maximizing C sequestration in loblolly pine plantations.
Smithsonian WILD, an outreach project stemming from a collaboration between the Smithsonian and NC State researcher/Nature Research Center Biodiversity Lab director Roland Kays has just won a 2012 Outreach Achievement Award from the Smithsonian.
This Temminck's Tragopan was photographed in China utilizing motion-activated camera-traps.
The Smithsonian WILD site makes over 200,000 camera trap photos collected by researchers around the world available to the public in a fun interactive way.
The website had 565,826 visits since launching last year, and with a 36% returning visitor rate, which is quite high. Visitors are from 189 countries, from Vatican City and Burkina Faso to Russia.
The photos are also all available through Flickr, which has registered another 187,048 visitors over the last year. The team now has an NSF grant to make the site interactive by adding new photos collected by other researchers as well as citizen scientists as part of the eMammal project.
Dr. Roland Kays
Dr. Kays is recently joined the NC State College of Natural Resources‘ forestry & environmental resources faculty and is excited about having students working with him in his lab at the exciting new Nature Research Center in downtown Raleigh, NC. The NRC’s grand opening is scheduled for April 20-21, 2012.
More about NC State/Nature Research Center Partnership>>>
More about Smithsonian WILD>>>
More about the Nature Research Center>>>
