Our research team from Northern Arizona University and Pennsylvania State University is investigating impacts of ecosystem disturbances and forest management activities on fluxes of CO2 and CH4 in forests dominated by ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), the most widely distributed and most important pine in western North America. Our research is unique in establishing flux tower sites in forests recently exposed to stand-replacing wildfire and restoration treatments that represent regionally distributed processes affecting landscape-scale C flux. We are using 3 sites:

1. Control: Unmanaged (C)
2. Restored: Thinned + prescribed-burned (R)
3. Wildfire: Burned ponderosa pine forests (W)

• How do stand-replacing wildfire and forest restoration treatments influence fluxes of CO2 and CH4?
• How do major components of CO2 flux differ among unmanaged, restored, and wildfire-burned forests?
• How does annual net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of CO2 estimated with the eddy covariance approach compare with net ecosystem production (NEP) of C estimated with the biomass inventory approach?
• How are fluxes of CO2 and CH4 influenced by intra- and inter-annual variation in a region with a highly variable climate?

This Project is funded by:

• North American Carbon Program
• USDA National Research Initiative
• National Science Foundation, Major Research Instrument Program
• Mission Research Program, School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University
  (McIntire-Stennis/AZ Bureau of Forestry)
• Arizona Water Institute
• Science Foundation Arizona
• NAU ERDENE

Last Updated ( Thursday, 22 May 2008 )