Making our mark in carbon

FEATURE

Start with a tree leaf.

Imagine the photosynthesis process. A leaf utilizes the energy in sunlight to transform carbon dioxide and water, bonding carbon atoms with hydrogen to form simple sugars while releasing oxygen molecules. Some of that sugar will harden into the biomass of the tree, locking in carbon to form the branches, trunk, and roots. The rest will be shed as nuts, leaves, and fruit to be consumed by animals or decomposed by microbes in the soil.

Now go wider. Imagine a forest where older trees spread an overhead canopy while young saplings rise in shade. On the forest floor, fallen trees are in the process of decomposition, their carbon holds leaching gradually into the soil and waterways to fertilize new plants.

Move further out, and imagine the forests connected to shrublands and prairies, to neighborhoods and parks and cities. Imagine the soil underground, which stores significantly more carbon, holding it in molecular ecosystems that persist through time scales far longer than the life of a tree or forest. Imagine the water that moves through all of these environments, providing a resource for plants to grow and water for downstream communities. Consider the cycle of precipitation and the accumulation of water in streams and rivers and ponds, which hold and carry carbon to the ocean.

Imagine the forest as the center of a dynamic, interconnected system that is perpetually engaged in carbon exchange processes that have given rise to all life on this planet. Imagine all that and you will be closer to understanding how forests might be the last, best solution to solving the global challenge of climate change while contributing to a revolution in sustainable materials utilization for products needed by society.

Understanding the carbon cycle and its outcomes

“Carbon is a central currency in many aspects of forest and conservation science,” explained Associate Professor Quinn Thomas, an ecologist who specializes in forest ecosystems. “Carbon management and utilization touches on many domains of science, management, and policy — from the basic science of studying plants and soils, to resource conservation and management, hydrology, climate science, the economics of the lumber and biomaterial industries, and global policy perspectives. The carbon cycle combines them together.”

The amount of carbon on Earth is effectively constant, but all life depends on having the capacity to obtain and dispose of this element. The process of carbon cycling through Earth systems is where forests can have the greatest potential impact.

According to a USDA Forest Service report (Research Update FS-227), forests, wood products, and urban tree stands represent the largest net carbon sink in the United States, offsetting approximately 11% of our total greenhouse gas emissions. Virginia’s role is particularly significant: Virginia’s total forest carbon biomass hold ranks fourth among the 48 contiguous states, behind Mississippi, Alabama, and Oregon.

The College of Natural Resources and Environment aims to take a lead role in advancing our understanding of carbon cycle processes and outcomes.

“If we are going to make progress in understanding and mitigating climate change and its impacts on our human ecosystem, we must first understand the science behind carbon,” said Paul Winistorfer, dean of the college. “Forests are central to our understanding, and the disciplines of the college and our faculty expertise have a deep core of talent toward this goal.”

To provide undergraduates with a comprehensive background on the many impacts carbon has on our world, the college offers numerous courses that consider carbon across a range of perspectives, from soil-level understanding of the microbial processes in forest ecosystems, to satellite telemetry technologies that allow researchers to visualize carbon and climate dynamics at a continental scale.

“To really tackle a challenge like carbon, you need to work collaboratively across disciplines,” Professor John Seiler explained. “The subject is both an economics challenge and a biology challenge. There are health and environmental questions and policy demands, and you need all of those perspectives coming to the table. CNRE is extremely diverse: we have our own economists and modelers, our own soil scientists and ecologists, our own social scientists and policy leaders. We have researchers on the cutting edge of every dimension of this topic.”

Because the subject of carbon touches on so many aspects of forest science, it would be impossible to itemize all of the contributions that researchers and students in CNRE are doing in the field of carbon, but some examples are provided below.

“This college has a deep pool of talent capable of making a difference in sustaining life on this planet,” Winistorfer noted. “From understanding the biological processes of photosynthesis and wood formation, to ecology and its myriad interconnectedness to all living things, to the remarkable renewable materials being manufactured, to economics of environmental choice, to policy and how it influences our management of the global landscape — it all starts with carbon and our forest processes and products. We do forests well, and because of that we are uniquely positioned to take on the critical challenges of carbon.”