Title: Forest carbon trends in the Southern United States

Author: Mickler, Robert A.; Smith, James E.; Heath, Linda S.

Year: 2004

Publication: In: Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS?75. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. Chapter 33. p. 383-394.

Abstract: Forest, agricultural, rangeland, wetland, and urban landscapes have different rates of carbon (C) sequestration and total C sequestration potential under alternative management options. Future changes in the proportion and spatial distribution of land use could increase or decrease the capacity of areas to sequester C in terrestrial ecosystems. As the ecosystems within a landscape change as a result of natural or anthropogenic processes, they may go from being C sinks to being C sources or vice versa. We used periodic forest inventory data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service's Forest Inventory and Analysis Program and Landsat Thematic Mapper data to obtain estimates of forest area and type. A simulation model for estimating and predicting C budgets (FORCARB) and a physiologically based forest productivity model (PnET) were used to generate estimates of historic, current, and future C storage for southeastern forests.

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