CAREER: Assessing how humans have altered floodplain organic carbon stocks

该项目评估了河漫滩在大空间范围内的土壤、植被和倒下的木材中储存了多少有机碳。它评估了人类活动，如堤防、水坝和土地利用变化如何改变了洪泛区的碳储量。洪泛区储存了大量的碳，但对于洪泛区储存了多少碳，或者人类活动如何改变了美国相邻地区的碳储量，目前还没有大规模的估计。气候变化对环境和人类的负面影响，促使人们对从大气中去除碳产生兴趣。洪泛区可以储存更多的碳，但通过改变洪泛区的管理方式来增加碳储存的潜力尚不清楚。该项目为管理者提供信息，为洪泛区管理决策提供信息。该项目为初高中学生开发课程活动，并培训研究生通过与非营利组织的互动向政策制定者和管理机构传达科学。该项目提供了对美国相邻地区洪泛区有机碳储量的全面估计，以确定人类活动对洪泛区碳储量的影响。最近的研究表明，相对于洪泛区以外的地区，洪泛区可能在洪泛区土壤、植被和倒下的木材中储存了更多的碳，但缺乏关于洪泛区在哪里以及储存了多少碳的信息。本项目(1)通过广泛的实地调查比较人类改造和未改造洪泛区洪泛区的碳储量；(2)利用基于实地的洪泛区碳储量估算来确定使用公开可用的地理空间数据集估算洪泛区碳储量是否准确；(3)确定洪泛区的碳储量以及减少人类改造（例如堤坝、水坝和土地利用变化）后洪泛区的潜在碳储量。(4)为高中、本科生和研究生创建课程模块，并为非营利组织传播推广材料。该项目建立了一门河漫滩碳储存科学，将新的数据和分析应用于河漫滩管理。它还有助于确定流域内洪泛区碳储量最大的位置。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project evaluates how much organic carbon is stored in river floodplains in soil, vegetation, and downed wood across large spatial extents. It assesses how human activities such as levees, dams, and land use change have changed carbon storage in floodplains. Floodplains store large amounts of carbon, but there are no large scale estimates of how much carbon floodplains store or how human activities have changed carbon storage in the conterminous United States. The negative impacts of climate change on the environment and humans, motivating an interest in removing carbon from the atmosphere. Floodplains could store more carbon, but the potential for increasing carbon storage through changing how floodplains are managed is unclear. This project provides information to managers to inform floodplain management decisions. This project develops course activities for middle and high school students and trains graduate students in communicating science to policy makers and management agencies through interactions with non-profit organizations. This project provides a comprehensive estimate of floodplain organic carbon storage across the conterminous United States to determine the impact of human activities on floodplain carbon storage. Recent work has indicated that floodplains likely store more carbon in floodplain soil, vegetation, and downed wood relative to areas outside of floodplains, but there is a lack of information on where and how much carbon is stored in floodplains. This project (1) compares floodplain carbon storage in human modified and unmodified floodplains through extensive fieldwork, (2) uses field-based estimates of floodplain carbon storage to determine whether it is accurate to use publicly available geospatial datasets to estimate floodplain carbon storage, (3) determines how much carbon is stored in floodplains and the potential storage if human modifications (for example, levees, dams, and land use change) were reduced, and (4) creates course modules for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students and disseminates outreach materials for non-profit organizations. The project builds a science of floodplain carbon storage to apply new data and analysis to floodplain management. It also helps determine the locations within watersheds where maximum floodplain carbon storage occurs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.