By Nathan Crabbe
Staff writer
A University of Florida-led consortium has been awarded a $20 million federal grant to develop ways for pine forests to deal with climate change while surviving its consequences.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the awarding of the five-year grant Friday. The grant will fund research into ways to increase the capacity of pine trees to store carbon dioxide while coping with the results of climate change, said Tim Martin, a professor with UF's School of Forest Resources and Conservation who led efforts to obtain the grant.
"We're going to help people improve how they manage forests. That's the bottom line," he said.
The grant is one of the largest ever associated with UF, according to the university. Martin said UF will get $4 million directly and manage the distribution of the rest of the consortium.
The group includes 10 Southeastern land-grant universities, eight forestry research cooperatives, state climate offices and the U.S. Forest Service.
The grant will be used to develop forest management techniques that can help pines grow faster, grow better on marginal land and capture carbon at a faster rate, Martin said. Other research will involve areas such as plant genetics, he said, developing pine trees better prepared for climate change.
Some of the consequences of climate change might include increased wildfires, pest outbreaks and more intense storms.
Improving management of pine forests has both ecological and economic value, Martin said. Most of the nation's drinking water comes from forested watersheds, he said, while Southeastern forests produce much of the world's wood and paper products.