By Alexandra Wolfe , Curatorial Associate , October 18 , 2020
INTRODUCTION
At Mount Auburn Cemetery , there resides a diverse living collection of 4,986 trees . These trees bestow many gifts upon us year after year . These gifts are known as ecosystem services . “ Ecosystem services are the conditions and processes through which natural ecosystems sustain and fulfill human life .” ( Daily 1997 , p . 3 ). Some of the ecosystem services that trees provide us are air pollutant removal , storm water run-off mitigation , air temperature reductions , and carbon storage and sequestration ( Neylele et al . 2020 ). The focus of this project is on the ecosystem services of carbon storage and sequestration that the trees of Mount Auburn Cemetery provide .
Trees sequester carbon through the process of photosynthesis when they take in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere ( Raven et al . 2012 ). They use the sequestered carbon for biomass production and release oxygen into the atmosphere as a by-product . The amount of carbon sequestered and stored by each tree varies depending on species and age ( Catanzaro & D ’ amato 2019 ). The species of tree is important to note because of the variation in wood density amongst different types of trees . Hardwood trees tend to store more carbon than those with softwood ( Vermont Dept . Forests , Parks & Recreation 2017 ). Peak carbon sequestering age is between 30-70 years old ( Catanzaro & D ’ amato 2019 ). Roughly half of Mount Auburn ’ s trees fall within the peak sequestering age and there is an amalgam of wood densities among them .
METHODS
The first step in estimating Mount Auburn Cemetery ’ s carbon sequestration and storage totals was to consult the plant collections analysis to get an idea of which taxa are most prevalent in the cemetery . According to the plant collections analysis , the highest represented taxa are as follows in order of prevalence : Acer saccharum , Cornus florida , Pinus strobus , Quercus rubra , Tsuga canadensis , Pseudotsuga menziesii , Chamaecyparis pisifera , Picea abies , Malus sp ., Magnolia sp ., Amelanchier sp ., Cornus kousa , Fagus sylvatica , Acer platanoides , Quercus alba , and Acer palmatum . The goal was to collect data from sections that when combined would properly reflect the distribution of those taxa throughout the cemetery as a whole . In order to convey the total carbon stored and sequestered in the cemetery without pulling data from every tree , this sampling method was implemented . To select which sections to use as our sample plots , our GIS specialist Stephen Chiavaroli utilized ArcGIS to find which areas contained the highest concentration of the desired taxa . From the information gathered through the GIS , horticulture sections were selected to collect data from based on their collective ratios of the desired taxa . As part of the selecting process , it was also important to look at the ratio of the highest represented taxa to the remaining species composition of each section . Seven sections were settled upon that would most accurately depict this : 10 , 14 , 16 , 43 , 53 , 54 , and 55 .
Section 10 is a large section outside of the operations center off of Glen and Vesper avenue . This section has a concentrated amount of Acer saccharum , Tsuga canadensis , Cornus florida , and Chamaecyparis pisifera . Section 14 is across the road from section 10 , by Fir avenue . This section also has a fair amount of Acer saccharum , as well as Malus sp ., Cornus florida , and Quercus alba . Section 16 is down the street from 10 and 14 , by Spruce avenue . Section 16 has a nice distribution of the medium sized deciduous trees desired . Section 43 is across the street from Willow Pond , along Pond road . An overwhelming amount of Taxus sp . can be found here , which is the third most prevalent taxa in Mount Auburn Cemetery . Situated between the Tower and Willow Pond is section 53 . Section 53 has a nice hardy amount of both Acer saccharum and Fagus
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