Reforestation can sequester two petagrams of carbon in US topsoils in a century

Nave, Lucas E.; Domke, Grant M.; Hofmeister, Kathryn L.; Mishra, Umakant; Perry, Charles H.; Walters, Brian F.; Swanston, Christopher W.

doi:10.1073/pnas.1719685115

Reforestation can sequester two petagrams of carbon in US topsoils in a century

Journal Article · Mon Feb 26 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1719685115· OSTI ID:1429070

Nave, Lucas E. ^[1]; ^[2]; Hofmeister, Kathryn L. ^[3]; Mishra, Umakant ^[4]; Perry, Charles H. ^[5]; ^[2]; Swanston, Christopher W. ^[6]

Univ. of Michigan, Pellston, MI (United States). Biological Station; Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States). Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
US Dept. of Agriculture-Forest Service (USDA)., St. Paul, MN (United States). Northern Research Station
Univ. of Michigan, Pellston, MI (United States). Biological Station; Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States). Baker Lab., Dept. of Natural Resources
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Environmental Science Division
S Dept. of Agriculture-Forest Service (USDA)., St. Paul, MN (United States). Northern Research Station
US Dept. of Agriculture-Forest Service (USDA)., Houghton, MI (United States). Northern Research Station

Soils are Earth’s largest terrestrial carbon (C) pool, and their responsiveness to land use and management make them appealing targets for strategies to enhance C sequestration. Numerous studies have identified practices that increase soil C, but their inferences are often based on limited data extrapolated over large areas. Here in this paper, we combine 15,000 observations from two national-level databases with remote sensing information to address the impacts of reforestation on the sequestration of C in topsoils (uppermost mineral soil horizons). We quantify C stocks in cultivated, reforesting, and natural forest topsoils; rates of C accumulation in reforesting topsoils; and their contribution to the US forest C sink. Our results indicate that reforestation increases topsoil C storage, and that reforesting lands, currently occupying >500,000 km² in the United States, will sequester a cumulative 1.3–2.1 Pg C within a century (13–21 Tg C·y^-1). Annually, these C gains constitute 10% of the US forest sector C sink and offset 1% of all US greenhouse gas emission

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDA. Forest Service - Northern Research Station; USDOE Office of Science

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1429070

Journal Information:: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 115; ISSN 0027-8424

Publisher:: National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC (United States)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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