A comparison of carbon and nitrogen stocks among land uses/covers in coastal Florida R. Chelsea Nagy, B. Graeme Lockaby,

Coastal areas are rapidly developing due to population growth and the appeal of coastlines. In order to gain insight into how land use/cover affects carbon (C) storage in a coastal context, we examined soil and vegetation C and soil nitrogen (N) across land uses near Apalachicola, FL. Forested wetlands had the greatest soil C and N storage, while natural pine forests and pine plantations had the least. In paired plots, urban lawns had significantly greater mineral soil N content compared to urban forest remnants. Total ecosystemC (soil + vegetation) was higher in forested wetlands than all other land uses/covers combined due to the high organic content of those wetland soils. Urban forest remnants and lawns had greater total ecosystem C than natural pine forests and pine plantations, which likely reflects the differential influence of prescribed fire and less frequent anthropogenic disturbances between the rural and urban areas, respectively. Projections of land use change in Franklin County, FL combined with these data suggest that increases in C storage are possible with continued urbanization along the Gulf Coast, if forest remnants are left and lawns are incorporated in built-up areas. However, this study does not account for C emissions during land conversion, or any emissions associated with maintaining urban built-up and residential areas. A better understanding of land use/cover Urban Ecosyst DOI 10.1007/s11252-013-0312-5 R. C. Nagy : B. G. Lockaby School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University, 602 Duncan Dr, Auburn, AL 36849, USA B. G. Lockaby e-mail: [email protected] W. C. Zipperer USDA Forest Service, Southern Center for Wildland-Urban Interface Research and Information, University of Florida, P.O. Box 110806, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA e-mail: [email protected] L. J. Marzen Department of Geology and Geography, Auburn University, 210 Petrie Hall, Auburn, AL 36849, USA e-mail: [email protected] Present Address: R. C. Nagy (*) Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University, 80 Waterman St, Providence, RI 02912, USA e-mail: [email protected] Author's personal copy