Federal land management, carbon sequestration, and climate change in the Southeastern U.S.: a case study with fort benning

Environmental Science & Technology
By: , and 

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Abstract

Land use activities can have a major impact on the temporal trendsandspatialpatternsofregionalland-atmosphereexchange of carbon. Federal lands generally have substantially different land management strategies from surrounding areas, and the carbon consequences have rarely been quantified and assessed. Using the Fort Benning Installation as a case study, we used the General Ensemble biogeochemical Modeling System (GEMS) to simulate and compare ecosystem carbon sequestration between the U.S. Army's Fort Benning and surrounding areas from 1992 to 2050. Our results indicate that the military installation sequestered more carbon than surrounding areas from 1992 to 2007 (76.7 vs 18.5 g C m-2 yr-1), and is projected to continue sequestering more carbon from 2008 to 2050 (75.7 vs 25.6 g C m-2 yr-1), mostly because of the proactive management approaches adopted on military training lands. Our results suggest that federal lands might play a positive and important role in sequestering and conserving atmospheric carbon because some anthropogenic disturbances (e.g., urbanization, forest harvesting, and agriculture) can be minimized or prevented on federal lands

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Federal land management, carbon sequestration, and climate change in the Southeastern U.S.: a case study with fort benning
Series title Environmental Science & Technology
DOI 10.1021/es9009019
Volume 44
Issue 3
Year Published 2010
Language English
Publisher ACS Publications
Contributing office(s) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center
Description 6 p.
Larger Work Type Article
Larger Work Subtype Journal Article
Larger Work Title Environmental Science and Technology
First page 992
Last page 997
Country United States
State Georgia
County Chattahoochee County
Other Geospatial Fort Benning
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