uRBAN ECOSYSTEM CARBON DYNAMICS
As urban land cover continues to increase, the importance of carbon (C) storage and sequestration increases as well. The International Panel on Climate Change has recognized the need for protecting and increasing urban C storage, as 10% of terrestrial C in the United States is stored in human settlements.
The majority (65%) of that urban C occurs below-ground in the soil. However, current urban ecosystem C models do not accurately account for soil C sequestration and turnover. This branch of the project is aiming to fill the significant knowledge gap in the amount of C stored in urban soils, especially at depths greater than 25 cm.
We collected data from 200 randomly selected plots from the Regional Tree Census (50% of which were included in the Urban Forest Resilience assessment) to characterize C storage and turnover in the soil (0-100cm), litter, and vegetation across a land-use gradient in the Chicago urban ecosystem. Field sampling included:
The majority (65%) of that urban C occurs below-ground in the soil. However, current urban ecosystem C models do not accurately account for soil C sequestration and turnover. This branch of the project is aiming to fill the significant knowledge gap in the amount of C stored in urban soils, especially at depths greater than 25 cm.
We collected data from 200 randomly selected plots from the Regional Tree Census (50% of which were included in the Urban Forest Resilience assessment) to characterize C storage and turnover in the soil (0-100cm), litter, and vegetation across a land-use gradient in the Chicago urban ecosystem. Field sampling included:
- Two deep soil cores (up to 100 cm)
- 10 shallow soil cores (0-20 cm depth)
- 2 litter samples adjacent to deep soil core location
