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Auburn University has been awarded $1.8 million from the U.S. Department of Defense to help develop a plan for sequestering carbon in longleaf pine forests on military bases – thus reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

Longleaf pine ecosystems are among the most diverse in temperate North America, but only 3 percent to 5 percent of the longleaf forest prior to European settlement now exists, she said.

Many military bases in the South have large tracts in longleaf pine that provide terrain and cover for mission training. The Department of Defense manages longleaf pine forests for those purposes and is
working to offset its carbon emissions while
managing for threatened and endangered
species.

Auburn's role in the study is to determine the amount of carbon stored trees and in important ecosystem components such as ground cover and coarse woody debris. The Southern Research Station, under the direction of Kurt Johnsen in Research Triangle Park, N.C., will measure carbon in soils and decomposing tap roots and it will conduct in-depth coarse root measurements using ground-penetrating radar.

Understanding the impact of climate change on southern pine species is important in assessing potential climate change impacts to southern Coastal Plain forests.  Potential changes in temperature and precipitation patterns may influence growth and physiological processes in trees.  This project is studying potential climate change impacts on the physiology of mature longleaf pine, loblolly pine, and slash pine stands in order to provide better predictions for future climate change effects on southeastern forests.

Dr. Ed Loewenstein in collaboration with the US Forest Service is comparing various silvicultural methods for natural regeneration of longleaf pine. Studies are examining the effect of varying residual stand structure on establishment, development, and recruitment of longleaf reproduction under an uneven-aged system. Specific variables that are being studied include light levels (transmittance), canopy cover, and vertical organization/social structure of the overstory. Projects in his lab are also looking at the response of partial cutting on residual stand growth rates in order to get a better estimate of time between harvest entries. A project nearing completion is the development of a longleaf pine stocking chart which will assist managers with density management questions whenever silvicultural treatments are planned.

Longleaf pine has been classified as very shade intolerant based on the need for canopy gaps for successful regeneration. Of the southern pines, longleaf is considered the most intolerant of competition.  Shade tolerance of longleaf pine has been defined primarily by seedling survival, height and root collar diameter growth in gaps.  However, longleaf may be moderately tolerant when young but become more intolerant of shade with age and therefore exhibit plasticity in shade tolerance.  To the best of our knowledge, no study has examined physiological shade tolerance defined by light response curves and leaf morphology in different size longleaf trees and in different geographic sources. Therefore, the objective of this research is

Photosynthetic response to light, chlorophyll concentrations and needle structure in foliage subjected to 0%, 50% and 70% reductions in ambient light were examined over one growing season. This study will yield a better understanding of ecological requirements of longleaf pine and will aid in refining process models that model carbon uptake of ecosystems. 

Under the auspices of the North Carolina State Tree Improvement Cooperative (S.E. McKeand) in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (K.H. Johnsen, C.D. Nelson), U.S. Forest Service National Forest Region 8 (B.S. Crane), and the Auburn University Center for Longleaf Pine Ecosystems (L.J. Samuelson), a series of provenance/progeny tests were planted across the Southeast in the early Winter of 2010. Twelve or more sites were planted on a combination of industry, private landowner, Forest Service Experimental Forests and University Experimental Forests.  One hundred and fifty one seed sources (mostly open-pollinated families) originating from southern Alabama, northern Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia were planted on all sites.  Seeds are from seed orchards across the region (where progeny have not been tested or minimally tested) as well as some bulk collections from natural stands.  This new set of experiments as well as the seed collections themselves will serve as the backbone of new genetics research on longleaf pine.