Analyzing Carbon Storage After An Experimental Harvest

Project Title

Carbon Dynamics Following An Experimental Regeneration Harvest in a Southern Appalachian Mixed Oak Forest

Project Description

This project will describe the effects of regeneration harvests in mixed-oak forests on carbon storage. Forest ecosystem sustainability requires practices that support multiple ecosystem services. The careful tracking of carbon pools and fluxes is essential to compare and evaluate carbon consequences among management options. This project will leverage an established experiment in the Southern Appalachian region and expand existing objectives by adding fine-grained empirical measurements. It will also provide quantitative descriptions of the spatial and seasonal patterns of soil carbon dynamics immediately following a thinning operation and parameterization for ecosystem process models to simulate long-term potential outcomes.

Principal Investigator

Jodi Forrester (Director)

Collaborators

This project will be conducted in collaboration with Tara Keyser and Christopher Maier of the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station in Asheville, North Carolina. 

Expected Outcomes

• Identification of a new and improved approach for public and private land managers to understand, assess and manage working lands for increased health, resilience and productivity.

About McIntire-Stennis

The McIntire-Stennis program, a unique federal-state partnership, cultivates and delivers forestry and natural resource innovations for a better future. By advancing research and education that increases the understanding of emerging challenges and fosters the development of relevant solutions, the McIntire-Stennis program has ensured healthy resilient forests and communities and an exceptional natural resources workforce since 1962.