Collaborative Research: New Analyses of 50-Year Net Ecosystem Productivity and Carbon Accretion in Secondary Forests

大气中的二氧化碳受到正在进行的和历史上的土地管理的强烈影响。然而，一些森林、田野和居民区吸收和释放碳的准确速度并没有得到很好的量化。这种缺乏精确度的原因可以归因于缺乏几年多来监测碳的野外实验，以及缺乏对土壤深处(1英尺)储存的碳进行检查的研究。这项拟议的研究建立在南卡罗来纳州卡尔霍恩实验森林50年来对树木、凋落物、土壤和大树的碳固定记录的基础上，这是世界上进行时间最长的同类森林研究之一。由于深层树根似乎吸收了大量的土壤碳，我们现在计划更深入地研究地下，盘点深达6英尺的树根和土壤。实地研究将与计算机练习联系起来，以评估碳封存的潜在区域和全球意义。这个新项目将极大地扩展世界上最好的长期生态学研究之一的能力，以解决紧迫的碳循环问题。这项研究将包括杜克大学和伍兹霍尔研究中心的本科生和研究生以及科学家。这项研究还将通过与北卡罗来纳州著名的凯南研究员计划合作，让高中教育工作者参与，该计划旨在促进科学教师的留任。这些数据可能被证明对改善碳封存的土地管理至关重要，并将在技术和公共科学文献中广泛传播。

Atmospheric carbon dioxide is strongly influenced by both on-going and historic land management. Yet, the precise rates at which carbon is taken up by some forests, fields, and residential areas, and released by others, are not well quantified. This lack of precision can be attributed to an absence of field experiments that monitor carbon for more than a few years, and to a shortage of studies examining carbon stored deeply in the soil (1 ft). This proposed research builds on a 50-year record of carbon sequestration in trees, litter, soil, and large wood at the Calhoun Experimental Forest in South Carolina, one of the world's longest running forest studies of its kind. Because deep tree roots appear to have sequestered significant amounts of soil carbon, we now plan to look more deeply belowground, inventorying roots and soil to 6 ft in depth. Field research will be linked with computer exercises to evaluate the potential regional and global significance of carbon sequestration. The new project will greatly expand the ability of one of the world's finest long-term ecological studies to address the pressing issue of carbon cycling. The research will include undergraduate and graduate students and scientists at Duke University and Woods Hole Research Center. The research will also involve high school educators via collaboration with the renowned North Carolina-based Kenan Fellows Program that promotes science-teacher retention. The data may prove critical for improving land management for carbon sequestration and will be broadly distributed in the technical and public scientific literature.