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Data from: Restoration of riparian forest cover increases carbon stocks in the Pacific Northwest

O'Kelley, Regina1; Graves, Rose A.2; Amer, Holly1; Silva, Lucas C. R.1

Published Jun 23, 2025 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.612jm64gs

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Abstract

Reforestation of degraded riparian areas provides climate mitigation benefits through increased carbon storage. In recent decades, riparian reforestation has accelerated in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) of the United States, primarily aiming to restore ecosystem functions and associated benefits, but few studies have evaluated riparian planting C sequestration and storage, particularly in highly productive wet riparian ecosystems like the PNW. 

Using these plantings as a ‘natural experiment’, we assessed C storage in woody vegetation (trees and shrubs) and soils across a chronosequence of PNW riparian reforestation sites, and non-forested riparian baseline sites, representing the pre-planting condition. These data were used to evaluate changes in C storage with planting age and identify key covariates affecting C storage in plants and soils and their relationship with planting age across a ~430 km latitudinal gradient in western Oregon, USA.   

Sites were distributed across 3 ecoregions, the Willamette Valley, the Pacific Northwest Coast, and the Klamath Mountains. The 43 studies sites were either non-forested or planted 5 -27 years before field data collection. The dataset includes biophysical properties of each site, as well as measurements of trees, shrubs, and soils which were used to calculate C storage at each plot and site. Sites stored between 38.3 – 511.1 Mg C per hectare, and carbon storage generally increased with planting age. The majority of site carbon was stored in soils; however, C storage differed more across planting ages for trees and the understory than for soil.