EDI Staging Environment
How terrestrial biomass changed before the advent of industrial society is a major gap in our understanding of the Earth's carbon cycle. Here, we reconstruct 10,000 years of aboveground woody biomass across the US Upper Midwest using statistical models based on historical forest surveys and fossil pollen assemblages. We document a 5,000 year long carbon sink into vegetation, primarily caused by the range expansion of two late-successional species into the region during the late Holocene. The importance of such large slow-growing tree species in storing carbon during the pre-industrial past argues for protecting similar species in wild forests today.
EDI is a collaboration between the University of New Mexico and the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Center for Limnology:
