CARBON SEQUESTRATION
For more information on carbon sequestration research at UW-Madison, please contact Tom Gower.
Carbon sequestration research at UW-Madison is supported by NASA's Regional Earth Science Applications Center Program.
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Project Overview
Since the industrial revolution began, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen from 280 parts per million volumetric (ppmv) to nearly 370 ppmv today. Most scientists believe high levels of atmospheric CO2 will result in global atmospheric warming, which could change our climate significantly, having catastrophic effects on natural and managed vegetation. Researchers are looking for ways to reduce the atmospheric CO2 both by reducing current inputs, and by increasing the rate at which CO2 is removed from the atmosphere. Removing CO2 from the atmosphere and storing it in other forms is referred to as sequestration.
Scientists are studying the feasibility of using forests to sequester CO2 from the air and store it in living trees, plant residue, harvested material, and soil carbon.
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| RESAC is studying the role of reforestation as an offset to rising atmospheric CO2 concentration. The objective is to quantify the ecological and economic potential of different land-use strategies (e.g., agriculture, native forest, plantation forests) on carbon sequestration in the soil and vegetation. The picture above shows one land use strategy being studied - a white pine plantation that can be harvested and replanted on a regular basis. The trees in the plantation remove CO2 from the air during photosynthesis and store the carbon from it in wood, needles, roots, and cones. While some of the carbon returns to the atmosphere as parts of the tree die and decompose, the harvested wood can store carbon for many, many years.
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