Here’s what we’re currently up to:
Organic Carbon Storage in Rivers in the United States – Ellen Wohl
As part of a national-scale inventory of organic carbon stored along river corridors in the United States, we are measuring the organic carbon content of floodplain soils along rivers of the tallgrass and shortgrass prairies, shown below:
Restoration of river corridors (channels + floodplains) to an anastomosing wooded or grassed wetland is being increasingly applied at diverse sites across the continental United States. This research focuses on how to monitor these highly spatially heterogeneous river corridors following restoration and on the potential for enhancing organic carbon stock in the river corridor through this form of restoration. Working at sites in Colorado, Utah, and Oregon, the study quantitatively compares river carbon stock at degraded sites, treated sites at which restoration has recently been completed, and reference sites that reflect the most natural conditions for a particular type of river and geographic area.
