Durham, North Carolina
Ecosystem:
Loblolly pine forest
Contact the Principal Investigators:
George Hendrey (hendrey@bnl.gov)
William Schlesinger (schlesin@acpub.duke.edu)
Ram Oren (ramo@env.duke.env)
Web Site: http://www.face.bnl.gov/FACTS/facts1.html
CO2: Ambient + 200 ppm
Background (scientific objectives)
Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) may lead to global warming and
other climate changes. By the processes of photosynthesis and respiration
forests exchange CO2 between the atmosphere and the land where it is sequestered
as wood and other organic forms and as CO2 in the soil.
Information is needed on these exchange processes in order to predict climate
change. Will there be changes in the rate at which trees grow over the next
hundred years? Will the storage of carbon in forest trees and soils change?
Could changes in forest carbon storage alter global atmospheric CO2
concentrations?
These questions will be answered in the FACTS-I experiment in which the
concentration of CO2 is elevated by 50% above the present atmospheric level in
three plots in this loblolly pine forest. Three other plots remain at the
current atmospheric CO2 level. This experimental design provides a large area in
which integrated teams of scientists can describe and quantify processes
regulating storage in forests.
The FACTS-I whole-ecosystem manipulation is a flagship experiment of the
Terrestrial Carbon Processes (TCP) research program of the US Department of
Energy. It is also a core project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere
Program (IGBP), and a contribution to the US Global Change Research Program.
