{"id":20432,"date":"2012-03-21T16:52:05","date_gmt":"2012-03-22T00:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?p=20432"},"modified":"2012-03-21T16:52:05","modified_gmt":"2012-03-22T00:52:05","slug":"how-much-carbon-do-californias-forests-hold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/03\/21\/how-much-carbon-do-californias-forests-hold\/","title":{"rendered":"How Much Carbon Do California’s Forests Hold?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a tough number to nail down, but a federal program is zeroing in on it<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Trees, grasses and freshwater aquatic systems all play a part in the carbon cycle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The U.S. Geological Survey is developing a series of reports on how much carbon and other greenhouse gases the nation’s ecosystems hold. Trees and plants, soils and rivers, farms and wetlands all sequester carbon to greater or lesser extents. But how much? And how might that number change in the future? That’s the crux of the USGS study, which was initiated by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007<\/a> [page 223 of the PDF]. (There’s a simultaneous study, also by the USGS, to assess geologic carbon sequestration<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The national assessment<\/a> will include details on greenhouse gas sequestration nationwide: how much carbon is stored now, how that carbon sink might be altered by different land use scenarios in the future (for example, increased or decreased logging, urbanization, wetland restoration efforts or agriculture), plus impacts from other sources, such as wildfire and climate change.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

To tackle this immense project, the agency divided the country into regions. The assessment on the Great Plains<\/a> came out late last year<\/a>. Next up is the West, including California, due out this summer.<\/p>\n

“The diversity of California is a story in and of itself,” Ben Sleeter, a USGS research geographer who’s working on the assessment told me. The Coast Range, the Klamath Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, the Central Valley and California’s deserts all store different amounts of carbon. There are diverse land management approaches in each area. And future land use options are varied, too. “It\u2019s enormously complex,” he said.<\/p>\n

The USGS study won’t gloss over the details. I asked Sleeter if I’d be able to learn the amount of carbon sequestered in the Sierra Nevada, and he said I could get much more specific than that. “If you were curious about an area near (Calaveras) Big Tree State Park, we will be able to summarize the land use changes and carbon sequestration changes for that area.”<\/p>\n

To help present the data, the USGS is collaborating with UC Berkeley’s Geospatial Innovation Facility<\/a>, the group that developed Cal-Adapt<\/a>, to create a similar tool, which will make the information in the assessment more accessible.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a tough number to nail down, but a federal program is zeroing in on it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[87,181],"coauthors":[],"series":[],"affiliates":[],"programs":[],"collections":[],"interests":[],"class_list":["post-20432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thescience","tag-carbon-sequestration","tag-ecosystems"],"acf":{"template_type":"standard","featured_image_type":"standard","is_audio_post":false},"yoast_head":"\nHow Much Carbon Do California's Forests Hold? | Climate Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/03\/21\/how-much-carbon-do-californias-forests-hold\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Much Carbon Do California's Forests Hold? | Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It's a tough number to nail down, but a federal program is zeroing in on it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/03\/21\/how-much-carbon-do-californias-forests-hold\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-22T00:52:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2012\/03\/BonTempe-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Molly Samuel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Molly Samuel\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/03\/21\/how-much-carbon-do-californias-forests-hold\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/03\/21\/how-much-carbon-do-californias-forests-hold\/\",\"name\":\"How Much Carbon Do California's Forests Hold? | Climate Watch\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-03-22T00:52:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-03-22T00:52:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/75519ba3e4f9a37e4c2cb8b5a06cb1b2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/03\/21\/how-much-carbon-do-californias-forests-hold\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/03\/21\/how-much-carbon-do-californias-forests-hold\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/03\/21\/how-much-carbon-do-californias-forests-hold\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How Much Carbon Do California’s Forests Hold?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/\",\"name\":\"Climate Watch\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/75519ba3e4f9a37e4c2cb8b5a06cb1b2\",\"name\":\"Molly Samuel\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/643ef9e6608b35e89a5fe132a953bfe7\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a6abd3b949a89fe5109fa9917631d0b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a6abd3b949a89fe5109fa9917631d0b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Molly Samuel\"},\"description\":\"Molly Samuel joined KQED as an intern in 2007, and since then has worked here as a reporter, producer, director and blogger. 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