In Land of Cypress and Pine: An Environmental History of the Santee Experimental Forest, 1683-1937

Managing coastal wetlands is one of the most promising activities to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gases, and it also contributes to meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. One of the options is through blue carbon projects, in which mangroves, saltmarshes, and seagrass are managed to increase carbon sequestration and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, other tidal wetlands align with the characteristics of blue carbon. These wetlands are called tidal freshwater wetlands in the United States, supratidal wetlands in Australia, transitional forests in Southeast Asia, and estuarine forests in South Africa. They have similar or larger potential for atmospheric carbon sequestration and emission reductions than the currently considered blue carbon ecosystems and have been highly exploited. In the present article, we suggest that all wetlands directly or indirectly influenced by tides should be considered blue carbon. Their protection and restoration through carbon offsets could reduce emissions while providing multiple cobenefits, including biodiversity.

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Resilience of Bottomland Hardwood Stands Following Agricultural Use on the Santee Experimental Forest

Czwartacki¹,

Trettin²

2013

AJPS

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Resilience is a key function that affects an ecosystem's ability to recover from disturbance. Understanding the extent to which forest communities recover after a long period of disturbance without direct intervention is important to provide context for considering ecosystem response to disturbance regimes. Species composition and structure were recorded on bottomland hardwood stands that were once inland and freshwater tidal rice fields. We sampled 17 old-field sites and 7 reference sites across three geomorphic settings. The old-field sites ranged from 30 to 120 years since agricultural abandonment. A total of 89 species were found across the old field sites and reference sample areas. Of that total, trees comprised 33 species, shrubs-5 species, and vine/herbs/forbs-51 species. Using field data, combined with stand inventory records, aerial photography , and high-resolution LiDAR imagery, we chronicled the evolution of the forest since the cessation of agriculture. Our findings demonstrate how Pinus taeda seeded directly after the rice fields went to fallow; and this conversion of bottomland swamp to rice to pine was a direct result of water management embankments constructed across the landscape to aid in crop irrigation. The remnant water management features may still alter flooding patterns thereby affecting development of Taxodium distichum and Nyssa aquatica in the old-fields. These results suggest, that over the 100+ years forest stands on the Santee Experimental Forest have developed to represent bottomland hardwoods characteristic of the southeastern United States coastal plain.

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In Land of Cypress and Pine: An Environmental History of the Santee Experimental Forest, 1683-1937

Cited by 3 publications

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Small gradients in salinity have large effects on stand water use in freshwater wetland forests

Small gradients in salinity have large effects on stand water use in freshwater wetland forests

All tidal wetlands are blue carbon ecosystems

Resilience of Bottomland Hardwood Stands Following Agricultural Use on the Santee Experimental Forest

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