Climate Change and Air Quality
1. Assessment of Alternative Management
Practices and Policies Affecting Soil Carbon in
Agroecosystems of the Central United States.
Donigian, A. S.; Barnwell, T. O.; Jackson, R. B.;
Patwardhan, A. S.; and Weinrich, K. B.
Washington, DC: U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency; EPA600R94067, 1994.
Notes: Contract: EPA68CO0019; Prepared in
cooperation with Computer Sciences Corp., Athens,
GA. and Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins. Natural
Resource Ecology Lab. Sponsored by Environmental
Research Lab., Athens, GA.
http://www.epa.gov/cgi-bin/claritgw?op-Display&
document=clserv:ORD:0762;&rank=4&template=epa
Descriptors: Emissions/ Ecosystems/ Mathematical
models/ Economic model/ Conservation/ Reduction/
Carbon dioxide/ Land use/ Farm crops/ Cultivation/
Yield/ Regions/ United States/ Trends/ Tables Data/
Climatic changes/ Soil properties/ Carbon/ Organic
matter/ Farm management/ Air pollution and control/
Environmental pollution and control/ Agriculture and
food/ Agricultural economics/ Agricultural equipment
facilities and operations/ Natural resources and earth
sciences/ Soil sciences/ Medicine and biology/
Ecology/ Atmospheric sciences/
Physical meteorology
Abstract: The goal of the U.S. EPA BIOME
Agroecosystems Assessment Project is to evaluate
the degree to which agroecosystems can be
technically managed, on a sustainable basis, to
conserve and sequester carbon, reduce the
accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,
and provide reference datasets and methodologies
for agricultural assessment. The report provides
preliminary estimates of carbon sequestration
potential for the central United States including the
Corn Belt, the Great Lakes, and portions of the Great
Plains. This study region comprises 44% of the land
area and 60% to 70% of the agricultural cropland of
the conterminous United States. The assessment
methodology includes the integration of the RAMS
economic model, the Century soil carbon model,
meteorologic and s