Strategies for Enhancing Carbon Sequestration and Co-Benefits in Human Dominated Landscapes

Climate Change;Carbon;Restoration;Ecosystem Service;Natural Resources and Environment

Lesch, LaurenCurrie, William ;

University of Michigan

关键词: Climate Change;    Carbon;    Restoration;    Ecosystem Service;    Natural Resources and Environment;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/69228/Lesch_Thesis_2010.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

The design and management of exurban residential properties offers an immenseopportunity to impact carbon storage and sequestration because of the large amountof land these subdivisions occupy. This thesis addresses the gap between the scienceinvestigating the carbon cycle in human dominated landscapes, and the on-thegrounddecisions made by designers and land managers. Based on a review of theliterature addressing carbon cycling in vegetated, urban, and agricultural land usesunder different management and climate regimes, we crafted strategies to helpplanners and designers optimize carbon storage in a way that is consistent withother potential ecosystem services, human functional requirements and culturalexpectations in metropolitan landscapes.Then we used these strategies as metrics to assess the carbon storage performance oftwo well-known conservation subdivisions: Prairie Crossing in Grayslake, Illinois, a678-acre development with 359 single family homes and 36 condominiums, andCoffee Creek in Chesterton, Indiana, a 700-acre development with plans for 3000residential units and 4 million square feet of commercial space. Based on dataderived from a review of the existing literature describing each site, publicallyavailable data from the developers of each site, as well as conversations with theirdesigners, developers and land managers, we assessed the success of thesedevelopments in preserving and enhancing carbon sequestration. We found thatmany of our strategies for carbon storage overlapped with the conservationprinciples used in designing these subdivisions, but that shifts in construction andmanagement practices could increase the potential for carbon storage in thesedevelopments, especially on private residential land.Finally, the carbon storage strategies are applied to the design of an ecologicalrestoration plan, a conservation subdivision, and individual yard treatments for anexurban subdivision in a post-industrial city with a temperate climate.