Agroecosystems / Carbon Sequestration Research Focus |
Nebraska Phase I Progress Report
Initial Contacts and Expectations Representatives from Colorado State University, Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) met with the Nebraska Farm Policy Task Force in 1999. Items discussed include current information on greenhouse gases, on going C studies in the mid-west US using the Century EcoSystem Soil Organic Matter Computer Model (Parton, et al., 1987, 1994; Metherall, et al., 1993) and how a C study in Nebraska could be accomplished. Additional meetings with the state conservation partners took place in the summer and fall of 2000, and detailed the issues of funding, state legislation and the use of various databases. In 2001, cooperative agreements between funding sources, Department of Natural Resources, NRCS and NREL were developed. These agreements detail the responsibilities of each group in providing a C study, the impacts of agriculture on soil C and the potential for Nebraska agriculture to sequester C. The project is divided into two parts. The initial state wide (Phase I) study of cropland utilized existing information on climate, soils and management factors (e.g., irrigation, drainage, crops grown, production levels and tillage systems). These databases were developed for the state, and further explanations are available in the following section of this report entitled, Phase I: Methodology. The detailed county (Phase II) study uses information gathered during the Phase I study, and the Carbon Sequestration Rural Appraisal (CSRA) to collect additional data from local land managers about each individual county (Brenner, et al., 2001a, 2001b; Paustian, et al., 2001). The Phase II assessment will be available in December 2001. |