Quantifying Carbon Storage and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Sagebrush Rangelands Active
Management partners have identified a major need to understand the short and long-term consequences of altered wildfire patterns, vegetation change, climate change, and management actions for the carbon cycle. This project aims to quantify carbon storage and greenhouse gas emissions in sagebrush rangelands. Researchers will link findings to the Sagebrush Conservation Design Framework and provide practical guidance regarding how much carbon is stored in key sagebrush landscapes. This guidance will inform collaborative efforts to defend core sagebrush habitats and help prioritize areas where growing the sagebrush core can simultaneously store ecosystem carbon and prevent further conversion to exotic annual grassland.
Background
Climate change, woodland expansion, wildfire, and exotic annual grass invasion pose significant threats to nearly 100 million acres of sagebrush-steppe ecosystems in the western U.S. In addition to providing critical habitat for wildlife, these rangelands can store carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere. The vast extent of the sagebrush-steppe is a significant but understudied carbon sink representing a major knowledge gap in the North American carbon cycle.
Considering Earth’s rapidly changing climate and increased frequency, severity, and size of fires, land managers can increasingly benefit from new tools linking management actions to rangeland carbon storage. Wildfires burn millions of acres of sagebrush-steppe annually, but this rate is accelerating. When sagebrush rangelands burn, they are often replaced by exotic annual grasses, which can result in a substantial loss of belowground carbon. After wildfire, over 30% of total ecosystem carbon may be lost as CO2 emissions from combustion, decomposition, and landcover change.
Expansion of pinyon pine and juniper woodlands into sagebrush rangelands presents further risks to carbon storage stability. Although trees accumulate carbon in the short-term, the accumulation of fuels can also increase the risk of high-intensity wildfire and subsequent conversion to exotic annual grassland, decreasing the long-term resilience of carbon stocks. While often intended for other restoration purposes, removal of woody fuels and perennial herbaceous species restoration has potential to reduce or stabilize the rate of exotic annual grass invasion and carbon emissions in sagebrush-steppe ecosystems.
Methods
We know substantial belowground carbon is stored in sagebrush rangelands, but it has been historically difficult to characterize how it varies across the landscape and in response to disturbance, landcover change, and restoration, making it difficult to tie management decisions to the fate of carbon. By synthesizing and mapping the variation in carbon storage across the Great Basin, we aim to fill a major gap in linking the Sagebrush Conservation Design to carbon dynamics and create a resource that land managers can use as a supporting reference for planning management actions with carbon storage and climate adaptation in mind.
Total ecosystem carbon accounting has been historically difficult, but long-term data collections and recent advances in remote sensing, high speed computing, and machine learning have facilitated better characterization of carbon fluxes across these vast and diverse landscapes. We will build on these advances, using data from the Sagebrush-Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project—or SageSTEP-- along with geology, climate, and topographic variables to estimate how total ecosystem carbon varies across the Great Basin and is altered by disturbance, landcover change, and management actions.
Objectives
- Establish a rangeland soil organic carbon database
- Use that database to analyze and summarize relationships between soil organic carbon and soil type, geology, climate, topography, vegetation, and land treatment history
- Develop a map of rangeland soil organic carbon across the Great Basin
- Use the map combined with aboveground biomass and vegetation change information to estimate total ecosystem carbon storage and CO2 emissions
- Develop guidance for land managers on which management actions are best suited for preserving resilient soil carbon
Learn more about SageSTEP
Climate-Smart Vegetation Treatments - Using 15 Years of SageSTEP Data to Inform Management of Resilient Ecosystems
SageSTEP – Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project
Management partners have identified a major need to understand the short and long-term consequences of altered wildfire patterns, vegetation change, climate change, and management actions for the carbon cycle. This project aims to quantify carbon storage and greenhouse gas emissions in sagebrush rangelands. Researchers will link findings to the Sagebrush Conservation Design Framework and provide practical guidance regarding how much carbon is stored in key sagebrush landscapes. This guidance will inform collaborative efforts to defend core sagebrush habitats and help prioritize areas where growing the sagebrush core can simultaneously store ecosystem carbon and prevent further conversion to exotic annual grassland.
Background
Climate change, woodland expansion, wildfire, and exotic annual grass invasion pose significant threats to nearly 100 million acres of sagebrush-steppe ecosystems in the western U.S. In addition to providing critical habitat for wildlife, these rangelands can store carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere. The vast extent of the sagebrush-steppe is a significant but understudied carbon sink representing a major knowledge gap in the North American carbon cycle.
Considering Earth’s rapidly changing climate and increased frequency, severity, and size of fires, land managers can increasingly benefit from new tools linking management actions to rangeland carbon storage. Wildfires burn millions of acres of sagebrush-steppe annually, but this rate is accelerating. When sagebrush rangelands burn, they are often replaced by exotic annual grasses, which can result in a substantial loss of belowground carbon. After wildfire, over 30% of total ecosystem carbon may be lost as CO2 emissions from combustion, decomposition, and landcover change.
Expansion of pinyon pine and juniper woodlands into sagebrush rangelands presents further risks to carbon storage stability. Although trees accumulate carbon in the short-term, the accumulation of fuels can also increase the risk of high-intensity wildfire and subsequent conversion to exotic annual grassland, decreasing the long-term resilience of carbon stocks. While often intended for other restoration purposes, removal of woody fuels and perennial herbaceous species restoration has potential to reduce or stabilize the rate of exotic annual grass invasion and carbon emissions in sagebrush-steppe ecosystems.
Methods
We know substantial belowground carbon is stored in sagebrush rangelands, but it has been historically difficult to characterize how it varies across the landscape and in response to disturbance, landcover change, and restoration, making it difficult to tie management decisions to the fate of carbon. By synthesizing and mapping the variation in carbon storage across the Great Basin, we aim to fill a major gap in linking the Sagebrush Conservation Design to carbon dynamics and create a resource that land managers can use as a supporting reference for planning management actions with carbon storage and climate adaptation in mind.
Total ecosystem carbon accounting has been historically difficult, but long-term data collections and recent advances in remote sensing, high speed computing, and machine learning have facilitated better characterization of carbon fluxes across these vast and diverse landscapes. We will build on these advances, using data from the Sagebrush-Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project—or SageSTEP-- along with geology, climate, and topographic variables to estimate how total ecosystem carbon varies across the Great Basin and is altered by disturbance, landcover change, and management actions.
Objectives
- Establish a rangeland soil organic carbon database
- Use that database to analyze and summarize relationships between soil organic carbon and soil type, geology, climate, topography, vegetation, and land treatment history
- Develop a map of rangeland soil organic carbon across the Great Basin
- Use the map combined with aboveground biomass and vegetation change information to estimate total ecosystem carbon storage and CO2 emissions
- Develop guidance for land managers on which management actions are best suited for preserving resilient soil carbon
Learn more about SageSTEP