NSF Convergence Accelerator: Landscape Carbon Sequestration for Atmospheric Recovery (LCSAR)

University Of Oregon Eugene, Eugene OR

Investigators

Abstract

This project will organize and host a workshop to expand collaboration between stakeholders in academia, industry, and community sectors to develop natural solutions to recovering carbon from the atmosphere and sequestering it in terrestrial ecosystems. The planned title is Landscape Carbon Sequestration for Atmospheric Recovery (LCSAR) workshop which will be held in fall 2019 at the University of Oregon. The event will be designed to stimulate the development of new tools to quantify and accelerate CO2 drawdown through natural climate solutions by catalyzing data integration in alignment with industry and land stewardship needs across forestry, farming, ranching, and wetlands/blue carbon sectors. Research has established that conservation, restoration, and management that increase carbon storage across forests, wetlands, grasslands, agriculture and developed lands, can mitigate impacts of CO2 build up in the Earth's atmosphere. However, critical gaps remain in translating this knowledge to implementation. To advance the natural CO2 sequestration solutions that are sought, public and private-sector land stewards require more detailed recommendations, including cost-benefit analyses, protocols, and technologies that can precisely synthesize data to help prioritize opportunities that are most likely to maximize investment returns. The planned workshop has the potential to accelerate innovation and convergence between private and public sectors to provide carbon drawdown while achieving co-benefits for economic well-being, biodiversity and natural resource conservation. Outcomes may include new prototypes and platform ideas to catalyze investments toward carbon sequestering landscape-based enterprises. The LCSAR workshop will convene leaders from business, science, the public sector, and key non-profits to assess and synthesize these needs, including: (i) academic experts in carbon sequestration, land systems, and social sciences, (ii) industry stakeholders in forestry, agriculture, livestock, and development (iii) federal, tribal, state, and local land management agencies, (iv) land trusts and private landowners, and (v) technology companies and software engineers engaged in developing non-proprietary knowledge infrastructures. The removal of CO2 from the atmosphere is limited by laws of physics and ecological processes. Natural rates of net carbon uptake are slow compared to the rates and amounts of carbon dioxide released by anthropogenic activity. Emerging scientific data show the need for development and coordination of strategies to address a national need to remove meaningful quantities of CO2 from the atmosphere to the land. The LCSAR workshop will stimulate the use of existing data from NSF-funded networks and other landscape-based research efforts to create an actionable set of protocols and deliverables envisioned via robust multi-institutional partnerships. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.