Reno Reporter

The University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) has issued a study that shows the conservation of meadows can have far-reaching impacts on the Sierra Nevada region.

While conservation efforts in the region's mountainous meadows go back decades, it was previously unclear how much the meadows helped mitigate harmful atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to a news release issued by the university.

“Carbon stocks and fluxes in montane meadows are large, which can create a lot of noise in the data from year to year,” lead author of the study Cody Reed said in the release. “The benefit of this study design is that it allowed us to integrate the annual variation and measure long-term trends in carbon sequestration.”

The positive impact of meadow restoration was underscored in a new study by researchers in UNR's College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources and recently printed in the scientific journal Ecological Applications. The study shows that rehabbed Sierra Nevada meadows can hold off carbon for over 20 years, which exceeds climate change objectives by over 10 times. The researchers came to the conclusion after conducting data changes in carbon and nitrogen within earth following the renovation of six meadows in the northern Sierra Nevada. These meadows were restored at different intervals over 22 years.

Associate Professor Ben Sullivan, co-author of the study and Reed’s doctoral advisor, sees the curative power of meadows as enduring.

“Our research shows meadow restoration can play a lasting role in carbon and nitrogen storage," Sullivan, the director of the university's Soil Ecology Lab, said. "Meadow restoration improves ecosystem functions. The benefits start quickly after restoration and appear to continue for decades.”