North American Prairie Wetlands are Important Nonforested Land-Based Carbon Storage Sites
- Euliss, Ned H., Jr.
- Gleason, R. A.
- Olness, A.
- McDougal, R.L.
- Murkin, H.R.
- Robarts, R.D.
- Bourbonniere, R.A.
- Warner, B.G.
Publication date
January 2006
DOI Publisher
DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln ISSN
0048-9697 Language
English Citation count (estimate)
160Abstract
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- 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 CO2 emission reported for North America in 1990
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