Decision support tools for soil carbon management in the Lake States

Scientists with the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science and American Forests initiated a project in 2018 to produce a series of soil organic carbon (SOC) assessments addressing land use and forest management effects on SOC within several distinct ecoregions of the United States. The primary goal of these assessments was to produce decision support tools, such as maps and tables, which were in turn supported by robust, underlying peer-reviewed science products. The Lake States assessment is the second in this series and was completed in 2020-2021. Specifically, this assessment looked into how and where forestry, fires, and reforestation influence SOC across the ecoregion, and also summarized site-level tactics that may be used to mitigate probable losses or capitalize on gains in SOC, where relevant. Subsequently, key insights regarding forest harvest impacts were used, in conjunction with geographic information system analyses, to create the spatially explicit data and maps indicating where harvesting likely causes losses, gains, or no change in SOC. The underlying site characteristics driving these changes are included in this data publication, which covers the 22 ECOMAP 2007 Sections present in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin (and extending into portions of adjacent states). This file includes Land Type Associations and other spatially explicit surface geology information (e.g., surficial deposits) which were used to stratify the study region into assigned values of parent material, landform, and physiographic group. Also included is a 10-meter raster grid representing a unique combination of parent material, surface texture, and landforms to which forest harvest change classes and harvest scores have been assigned. Tabular data containing the ECOMAP 2007 Sections, Land Type Associations, surficial deposits, assigned parent material, landform, and physiographic group are also included along with the unique dominant soil surface texture values obtained from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRSC) National Soil Survey Geographic (NATSGO) database assigned to a broader class.
Produce decision support tools, such as maps and tables, supported by robust, underlying peer-reviewed science products within the Lake States assessment area to address land use and forest management effects on soil carbon (C). The dataset provides insights into how and where forestry, fires, and reforestation influence soil C across ecoregions, and summarize site-level tactics that may be used to mitigate probable losses or capitalize on gains in soil organic C.
For more information about the data included in this package as well as details regarding the data sources, methods, analyses, and insights into how and where forestry, fires, and reforestation influence soil C across the ecoregion, and also summarized site-level tactics that may be used to mitigate probable losses or capitalize on gains in SOC, where relevant, see Nave et al. (2021; https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2356). Original publication date was 04/20/2021. On 04/23/2021 metadata was updated to include reference to newly published Nave et al. (2021; https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2356), which is referred to throughout this documentation as Nave et al. (2021). Additional minor metadata updates were made on 09/28/2021.