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Browsing Research Data - Other by Subject "carbon sequestration"

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    Dataset associated with "A First-Order Approximation of Floodplain Soil Organic Carbon Stocks in a River Network: the South Platte River, Colorado, USA"
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Wohl, Ellen; Knox, Richard
    We use the hydrogeomorphic floodplain tool GFPLAIN to delineate the extent of 100-year floodplains in the South Platte River watershed of Colorado, USA. We distinguish elevation bands for the steppe, montane, subalpine, and alpine zones. We also differentiate bead (floodplain width/channel width > 5) and string (floodplain width/channel width < 5) reaches within the montane and subalpine zones. Drawing on prior, field-based measurements of organic carbon stock in downed, dead wood and soil in these floodplain types, we estimate total floodplain organic carbon storage, which includes organic carbon storage in lake and reservoir sediments in the watershed. Soil constitutes the greatest reservoir of floodplain carbon. The total estimated area of floodplain is 2916 km2, which is 4.3% of the total watershed area of the South Platte River. Our preferred estimate is 42.7 Tg C storage (likely range of 39.1-42.7 Tg). This equates to 11.1% of a previously estimated overall carbon stock (above and belowground biomass and soil organic carbon) in the entire watershed of 384 Tg C. Floodplains are thus disproportionately important, relative to their surface area, in storing organic carbon in this semiarid watershed. Field measurements of floodplain soil organic carbon storage from across the globe indicate that this finding is not unique to this watershed and this has implications for prioritizing floodplain management and restoration as a means of enhancing carbon sequestration.