978-448-0299EMAIL
Nashua River Watershed Association logo
DONATEVOLUNTEER

Climate Resilience

Mitigating Impacts Through Carbon Sequestration

Climate Impact - carbon sequestration - Morse Conservation Area by Sherry Anders

New England has one of the most extensive forested landscapes in the United States, storing a tremendous amount of carbon. By sequestering and storing carbon, forests can be one of the main ways we can mitigate against the adverse impacts of climate change, if we conserve and manage them well.

Carbon Sequestration graphic from Ohio Sea Grant
More than half of the carbon stored in a temperate forest is stored below ground in the soil and the roots of trees, with the remainder stored in trunks, branches, and woody debris on the forest floor.
(Kramer et al. 2017)
The importance of soils for carbon storage cannot be overstated. According to a Washington State University study, Soil Organic Carbon Storage (Sequestration) Principles and Management (Canming Xiao, 2015, pg vii), the uppermost three feet of soil holds three times as much organic carbon as the total amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Studies indicate that, since the beginning of the industrial revolution, land use change and poor soil management have released more than a hundred billion tons of carbon from the soil, a major contribution to total atmospheric carbon.

Up to twenty percent of carbon fixed by photosynthesis in plants is released into the soil through roots. Fungi, including mycorrhiza, bacteria, and other organisms in healthy soil are essential to the process of transforming and storing carbon, mostly as organic matter, in the soil. Trees, shrubs, and meadow grasses can all be effective at sequestering and storing carbon in the soil.

Carbon Sequestration - carbon in soil - Nature Education

Soil Carbon Storage: Carbon balance within the soil (brown box) is controlled by carbon inputs from photosynthesis and carbon losses by respiration.

Resources

MA Forests as Climate Solutions Climate Forestry Committee Final Report (2024)

MA Healthy Soils Action Plan (2022)