2001: Black Rock Forest Carbon Initiative: Connecting Forest Carbon Sequestration to Atmospheric Carbon Levels

Why carbon?

Carbon plays an important role in many bio-geo-chemical cycles on Earth that enables living organisms to exist and flourish. From blanketing the Earth to keeping it warm, to being an elemental building block of molecules that make up all organisms on Earth, carbon is important for the very life that exists on our planet. But, what happens when carbon is added to the biosphere due to fossil fuel combustion? What effects does this carbon influx have on the biotic and abiotic factors of Earth's ecosystems? What happens to the carbon found in the atmosphere, and how does this carbon end up in organic molecules? And finally what can be done to moderate the effects of this rapid increase of carbon in the atmosphere, and what kinds of changes in Earth's systems will take place because of this? These and other questions will be considered throughout the Carbon Initiative Program.

As carbon dioxide levels in Earth's atmosphere rise (atmospheric carbon dioxide has risen by 30% since the 1800s) many scientists believe that subtle environmental changes occur. One such change may be an increase in the global average temperature by about 0.6°C. The addition of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere may be contributing to this global temperature increase.

As the carbon dioxide levels in the past hundred years have risen, the land use on the East Coast of the United States has also changed. Since the beginning of the 1900's East Coast land use has changed from agriculture to forestland. This change in land use has returned much of the old agricultural fields to forest. As the forests grow and mature, the amount of carbon stored in the trees increases.

The carbon initiative team will quantify the amount of carbon being stored in a model East Coast forest. The team will study different parts of the forest, which represent various ecosystems in the forest, to understand which ecosystems are storing the largest amounts of carbon. Although carbon is vital for life on Earth, few studies have been undertaken to quantify the relationship between the amount of carbon in producers in a particular area with the amount of carbon in air, water and other abiotic components of an area. The team will quantify the amount of carbon stored in the forest at Black Rock both under natural and impacted conditions.

Black Rock Forest, a research forest site in upstate New York, gives the Carbon Initiative team an unique study setting. As mentioned above, Black Rock Forest and the entire East Coast of the United States is currently being reforested after years of intense farming practices. Probably one of only a few places like this in the world today, this reforestation provides an excellent opportunity to conduct research on the types of carbon sequestration changes that forests undergo as they age and are impacted by both natural and manmade events. The research being conducted this summer is a pilot for more in-depth studies to be conducted during the next few years. The participants will study a total of six different sites within Black Rock Forest. Each study site has either a different land use history or different environmental factors affecting the site. The participants will first identify the ecosystem's physical characteristics. This will involve taking measurements such as temperature, altitude, geographic position, land features, and soil depth. As participants are measuring the defining abiotic factors affecting their study sites, they will also identify the various species of organisms found in this community. Participants will conduct more in-depth studies on the plant populations in order to ascertain the amounts of carbon stored within the plant's tissues. Allometric methods will be used which involve measuring plant circumference and species identification to quantify carbon storage. The groups will be comparing the amounts of carbon stored with the physical features of each of their study sites. Also the Black Rock Forest team will study how carbon storage in one site differs from the other sites due to variability due to fire, agricultural interference, the absence of herbivores, the age of the forest site, altitude and others.

Policies concerning carbon dioxide emissions are currently a very hot topic. The Carbon Team will be involved in research that can be used as more evidence for this discussion. The importance of perspective and informed decisions can not be overstressed.

Guiding Science Questions

How is carbon storage in a forest ecosystem influencing atmospheric carbon levels?

What ramifications does this carbon storage have on future land use issues?

Basic Science Concepts and Questions

What is atmospheric carbon?

What is the carbon cycle?

What is an ecosystem?

How much carbon is stored in a forest ecosystem?

How do impacts both natural and man-made changes to a forest ecosystem affect the carbon storage in that ecosystem?

How does the perspective and needs of a society influence the extent of reforestation and indirectly the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere?

What influences on climate can be extrapolated from the carbon storage information?