Center Highlights
Developing tools for ecological forestry and carbon management in longleaf pine
This 5 year project funded by the Department of Defense's Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) is collecting extensive field data to develop ecological forestry and carbon management models for longleaf pine ecosystems. This year biomass and carbon pools were measured at Fort Benning, Georgia in 5, 12, 21, 64, and 87 year-old stands. These pools include carbon in coarse and fine woody debris, litter, ground cover, the understory and in above and belowground tissues in longleaf pine trees. The AU crews felled trees for branch, stem and foliage mass and excavated soils to measure taproot biomass. We sampled carbon in the overstory, understory, ground cover layer, coarse woody debris, litter and soils. The US Forest Service team scanned plots with Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to estimate coarse root biomass, dug up decaying stumps to estimate long term carbon storage in tap roots and measured black carbon in soils. Our modeling team at the University of Florida has been working on individual-tree functions and a whole-stand growth and yield model for longleaf pine plantations.
For more information read: Auburn awarded $1.8 million to aid carbon sequestration on military bases
