Guiding future research on terrestrial ecosystem disturbance

With North American ecosystems responsible for drawing hundreds of teragrams of carbon from the atmosphere each year, the tenuous balance of the terrestrial carbon budget can be upset for decades by disturbances such as fires, storms, disease outbreaks, insect infestations, and logging. Research cataloging the effects of such disturbances on regional carbon cycling tends to be sporadic or of limited scope. Most research has focused on forests but is less extensive for other important ecosystems such as grasslands or permafrost peatlands.