North American prairie wetlands are important non-forested land-based carbon storage sites.
We evaluated the potential of prairie wetlands in North America as carbon sinks. Agricultural conversion has resulted in the average loss of 10.1 Mg ha(-1) of soil organic carbon on over 16 million ha of wetlands in this region. Wetland restoration has potential to sequester 378 Tg of organic carbon over a 10-year period. Wetlands can sequester over twice the organic carbon as no-till cropland on only about 17% of the total land area in the region. We estimate that wetland restoration has potential to offset 2.4% of the annual fossil CO(2) emission reported for North America in 1990.
Euliss
Ned H
NH
U.S. Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, Jamestown, ND 58401-7317, USA. Ned_Euliss@usgs.gov
Gleason
R A
RA
Olness
A
A
McDougal
R L
RL
Murkin
H R
HR
Robarts
R D
RD
Bourbonniere
R A
RA
Warner
B G
BG
D000383:Agriculture; D002170:Canada; D002244:Carbon / Q000032:analysis*; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D012987:Soil / Q000032:analysis; D014481:United States
D012987:Soil; D002244:Carbon