Collaborative Research: The Northeastern Carbon Sink: Enhanced Growth, Regrowth, or Both?

碳在美国的树木中积累，从而减少了二氧化碳在大气中的进一步积累。然而，这种积累是否会继续是不确定的，因为不知道有多少是由环境变化引起的增长率提高（表明未来碳储存增加）造成的，有多少是由于早期干扰后的再生长（表明未来积累减少）。这项工作旨在确定增强的增长和再生的碳积累在东北部的森林的相对贡献。这个问题将从三个方向解决：通过分析美国森林资源清查和分析（FIA）的大型但以前无法访问的数据集;通过将这些FIA数据与森林碳模型的模型模拟进行比较（以测试增强增长的假设）;以及通过重新分析土地利用，管理和干扰的历史模式（以测试再生假设）。这项工作解决了美国气候变化科学计划的主要目标之一，即确定碳积累的规模和机制。 这项工作还将向公众提供东北部树木生长的50年记录。

Carbon is accumulating in the trees of the US, thereby reducing further accumulation of CO2 to the atmosphere. Whether this accumulation will continue is uncertain, however, because it is not known how much of it is caused by enhanced rates of growth from environmental change (suggesting an increased carbon storage in the future), and how much of it is attributable simply to regrowth following earlier disturbances (suggesting a diminished accumulation in the future). This work seeks to determine the relative contributions of enhanced growth and regrowth to carbon accumulation in the forests of the Northeast. The question will be tackled from three directions: by analyzing the large but previously inaccessible data sets of the US Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA); by comparison of these FIA data to model simulations of a forest carbon model (to test the hypothesis of enhanced growth); and by reanalyzing historical patterns of land use, management and disturbance (to test the regrowth hypothesis). The work addresses one of the primary goals of the US Climate Change Science Program to determine the magnitude and mechanisms for the accumulation of carbon. The work will also make accessible to the public the 50-year record of tree growth in the Northeast.