Southeastern US: Forests recognized as Important in Greenhouse Gas Mitigation  

by Timothy Martin, FCI Steering Committee Member

 

Southeastern U.S. forests have the potential to play an important role in greenhouse gas mitigation. Because they occupy 60% of the land area and are highly productive, southern forests are a significant portion of the U.S. carbon budget, containing 36% of the stored forest carbon in the continental U.S. Forests in the region annually sequester carbon equivalent to 13% of regional greenhouse gas emissions, and have the potential to sequester more through reforestation, afforestation, and improved forest management. A team of SE US forest scientists and climatologists recently received a 5-year, $20 million grant to create, synthesize, and disseminate the knowledge necessary to better manage forests to (1) increase their ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; and (2) adapt forest management approaches and the planting of improved tree varieties to decrease risks from climate change. This project, dubbed "PINEMAP" (Pine Integrated Network: Education, Mitigation, and Adaptation Project) is one of three Coordinated Agriculture Projects (CAP) recently awarded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to encourage agriculture and forestry producers to increase carbon sequestration and adapt practices to reduce the impact of climate variation and climate change. The Florida Climate Institute played a critical role in the conceptualization and eventual funding of this project. The built-in interdisciplinarity of FCI allowed me to make important contacts with climate scientists, and to learn about climate change research approaches in other crop systems. The involvement of FCI in the project was a concrete demonstration to NIFA of the University of Florida's commitment to climate change research. Finally, during the complex and intense period of proposal preparation, FCI staff provided very helpful logistical support. FCI played an important role in taking forest-climate research to a higher level in the region. I encourage you to become more involved to see what FCI can do for your discipline.