USGCRP Home Library Our Changing Planet FY2008   Figure 6. Coconino National Forest, Northern Arizona.

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Updated 16 November 2007

OUR CHANGING PLANET The U.S. Climate Change Science Program for Fiscal Year 2008 A Report by the Climate Change Science Program and The Subcommittee on Global Change Research A Supplement to the President's Fiscal Year 2008 Budget

This photo shows Coconino National Forest 10 years after an intense stand-replacing wildfire. The wildfire converted the site from a dense forest of ponderosa pine to a grassland in which trees have not regenerated. Such a conversion from forest to grass- or shrub-land is common in ponderosa pine forests of the southwestern United States following intense wildfire. The instrument tower measures ecosystem CO2 flux for comparison with unburned forest. This site was a CO2 sink 10 years ago, but is now a CO2 source due to decomposition of organic matter in the soil offsetting photosynthesis by the low leaf area of the grassland. Credit: M. Montes-Helu, Northern Arizona University. Back to Land Use and Land Cover Change >>

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