Carbon Sequestration

Long-term CO2 forest experiment may end

11.11.2008

An experiment that pumps carbon dioxide into groups of trees growing outdoors, designed to test how forests will respond to global warming may be ended by the US Department of Energy. This is not a nefarious plot to squash the results of global warming research, but a genuine disagreement among two groups of scientists over [...]

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Do earthworms change soil carbon storage capability?

10.29.2008

Earthworms can change the chemistry of carbon in forest soils and litter. Researchers at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center are trying to figure out the impact of earthworms on forest soils, and how they may change soil chemistry. Although we may think that earthworms are everywhere, they were actually introduced into North America by early [...]

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Wildfires may reduce forest soil carbon, nitrogen

10.21.2008

Global warming is contributing to the increased frequency of forest fires in the American west. A new study by the US Forest Service shows that hot fires in western forests consume soil carbon and nitrogen, reducing the ability of soils to store carbon and reducing soil fertility.  This is a potential feed-forward effect: increasing temperatures [...]

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Old growth forests are good carbon sinks

09.26.2008

Old growth temperate forests are an important global carbon sink, soaking up CO2 at much higher rates than previously thought.The dogma for many decades has been that once forests become mature, they have such a large volume of non-green respiring (and CO2 releasing) tissue that they do not accumulate carbon.As a result, old growth forests [...]

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Carbon sequestering forestry in Kentucky

09.25.2008

A private company, GreenTrees, is creating long-term contracts with landowners in the Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley, including Western Kentucky, to plant forests of cottonwood and other hardwoods. The purpose of the project is to create value through a combination of biomass production for industry and carbon sequestration opportunities. Carbon sequestration will create income streams [...]

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Climate Progress – Has runaway climate change begun?

09.25.2008

A very important article from Joe Romm at Climate Progress this morning. Evidence is growing that methane in the atmosphere is increasing, and methane is a powerful greenhouse gas (20 times the heat absorption of CO2 One source of methane may be deep sea-bed deposits that are released as the Arctic Ocean warms.   Joe points [...]

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Governors Conference

09.25.2008

I’m giving a keynote speech at the Kentucky Governor’s Conference on the Environment.  Notes in preparation for the talk, which will include some discussion of forests and soils for carbon sequestration are at Sustainable Kentucky.

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Put Forests Back Into Carbon Markets, say Gore and Maathai

09.23.2008

Andrew Revkin  at Dot Earth has a nice article about the proposal by Al Gore and Wangari Maathai to include forest preservation in carbon-trading markets designed to curb greenhouse gas emissions.  Gore and Maathai, both Nobel Peace Prize laureates for their conservation work, are promoting the work of the Avoided Deforestation Partners. Tropical forest conversion [...]

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Carbon Storage in Upper Midwest Forests

09.15.2008

Research by Peter Curtis (Ohio State University) and colleagues shows that northern Michigan forests can store an average of 0.65 tons C per acre per year. This rate of storage is higher than earlier estimates such as those used to develop the Kyoto Protocol, and is consistent with other recent studies that show that temperate [...]

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