Research

The overarching goal of this proposal is to create, synthesize, and disseminate the knowledge necessary to enable southern pine landowners to harness forest productivity to mitigate atmospheric CO2 and to more efficiently utilize nitrogen and other fertilizer inputs, and to adapt their forest management approaches to increase resilience in the face of changing climate. Our focus is on planted pine forests in the Atlantic and Gulf coastal states from Virginia to Texas, plus Arkansas and Oklahoma, managed by industrial and non-industrial private landowners. This large regional project includes 12 Universities in the southern region. Visit the PINEMAP website for more info

http://pinemap.org/

Objectives for this component of the Biomass Harvesting Guideline Evaluation Project are to:

1. Quantify the effect of levels of biomass removal and of mitigation strategies on the content and distribution of soil C and N in surface debris, forest floor and mineral soil of harvested stands

2. Determine the spatial distribution of SQIs previously shown to be most useful for assessing productivity change following different levels of biomass harvest and mitigation strategies

3. Develop relationships between visual indicators of site disturbance with changes in soil quality indicators for operational bioenergy harvests of pine forests in the Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States.

Optimization of pine plantations for woody biomass biofuel feedstock production or for integrated product objectives including traditional resources of timber and fiber along with biofuel feedstock is a critical need in the SE USA. Multiple objective management of pine plantations provides a superior opportunity for landowners but there are significant gaps in our knowledge related to carbon sequestration and carbon life cycle analysis. We propose to fill four knowledge gaps: 1) Carbon gain and partitioning in aboveground stand components,

2) Growth efficiency in carbon capture,

3) Carbon partitioning and storage belowground, and

4) Life cycle carbon analysis.

Outcomes from aboveground will quantify carbon allocation to desirable products; efficiency will identify drivers of growth applicable to future management or tree selection; belowground allocation will measure C sequestration potential; and life cycle analysis will demonstrate renewable fuel standard goals for southern pine woody biomass.

Potential non-timber forest products in Georgia include native medicinal species because of their ability to grow in shaded conditions, harvest rotations shorter than timber rotations, and they show a high potential in providing a profit to landowners. In this study, we aim to establish if differences in site preparation treatments (no disturbance, litter raking, or tillage) effect production of medicinal species. The four medicinal species we have chosen for this study are Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius), Black Cohosh (Actea racemosa) and Fairy Wand (Chamaelirium luteum). We have found that differences in silvicultural treatments, such as raking away leaf litter, tillage and reducing competition through sapling removal, do not influence establishment of plantings. We have also found that plantings of root cuttings and plantlets establish at higher rates than seed plantings. Soil chemical characteristics of the area indicate a significant difference in soil fertility between our experimental blocks and the interaction of species and block was found significant.