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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fort Collins, Colorado » Center for Agricultural Resources Research » Soil Management and Sugarbeet Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #397776
Research Project: Agricultural Management for Long-Term Sustainability and Soil Health

Location: Soil Management and Sugarbeet Research

Title: CaRPE: the Carbon Reduction Potential Evaluation tool for building climate mitigation scenarios on US agricultural lands

Author
item Manter, Daniel
item Moore, Jennifer

Submitted to: Database: The Journal of Biological Databases and Curation
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/23/2022
Publication Date: 12/14/2022
Citation: Manter, D.K., Moore, J.M. 2022. CaRPE: the Carbon Reduction Potential Evaluation tool for building climate mitigation scenarios on US agricultural lands. Database: The Journal of Biological Databases and Curation. 2022. Article baac105. https://doi.org/10.1093/database/baac105.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/database/baac105

Interpretive Summary: The Carbon Reduction Potential Evaluation (CaRPE) Tool is a web-based interactive tool (https://carpe.shinyapps.io/CarpeTool/) designed to estimate mitigation potentials associated with conservation practice adoption on cropland and grazing lands in the USA. The graphical user interface (GUI) allows users to quickly and easily build and export scenarios on desired acreages and locations at state, regional, or national scales. The output from CaRPE is especially designed to develop potential targets of conservation practice adoption to help inform decisions related to resource prioritization and planning efforts for climate mitigation on US agricultural lands.

Technical Abstract: The Carbon Reduction Potential Evaluation (CaRPE) Tool is a web-based interactive tool that integrates two databases for the United States (USA) collected at county/multi-county scales to visualize and estimate the climate benefits of implementing a variety of conservation practices on croplands and grazing lands. The COMET-Planner Tool provides county/multi-county carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emission reduction coefficients associated with the adoption of climate-smart agricultural management practices. The CaRPE Tool couples these coefficients, reported in tonnes carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) per acre per year, with county-level cropland and grazing land acres extracted from the USA Agricultural Census. The CaRPE GUI interface allows users to quickly and easily build and export scenarios of new conservation practice adoption on desired acreages and locations at state, regional, or national scales. Results are in tonnes CO2e per year and each scenario can be exported in tabular and map formats at the selected scales. By using county-level acreage data, upper boundaries are in place that can be modified based on specific goals established by the user. The output may be used to develop potential targets of adoption and help inform decisions related to resource prioritization and planning efforts. In collaboration with local experts and farmer-led organizations, results can provide a key starting block to prioritize practices and areas that contribute to climate benefits. As the underlying databases and models are updated and improved, CaRPE can be revised accordingly to increase accuracy and enhance applicability. The CaRPE Tool and the user guide are available at https://carpe.shinyapps.io/CarpeTool/.