Roser Matamala, ANL contact (matamala@anl.gov)

Carbon dioxide fluxes and stocks in terrestrial ecosystems are key measurements needed to constrain quantification of regional carbon sinks and sources and the mechanisms controlling them. This information is required to produce a sound carbon budget for North America. The purpose of the proposed project is to examine CO2 and energy fluxes from agricultural land and from land in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and to compare the carbon sequestration potentials of these lands. Our study integrates eddy covariance measurements with biometric measurements of plant and soil carbon stocks and with remote sensing modeling for two systems in Northeastern Illinois: (1) long-term cultivated land in corn-soybean rotation with conventional tillage (a common agricultural practice on the highly productive soils of the Corn Belt region of the Midwest) and (2) a 15-year-old restored prairie that represents a long-term application of CRP conversion of cultivated land to native vegetation. The primary objectives of the study are to (1) compare net ecosystem production derived by integrating eddy covariance estimates of net ecosystem exchange over time with independent biometric measurements of ecosystem carbon stocks, (2) regionally scale up eddy flux measurements by correlating vegetation indexes based on satellite sensors with the eddy covariance measurements, and (3) compare carbon dynamics and stocks for the two management practices. The study is contributing to the North American Carbon Program by providing information on the magnitude and distribution of carbon stocks and the processes that control carbon dynamics in cultivated and CRP-restored land in the U.S. Midwest.

Links:

North American Carbon Program: http://www.esig.ucar.edu/nacp/