Duke Forest FACE (FACTS-1)

The Forest-Atmosphere Carbon Transfer and Storage (FACTS-I) facility is located in the Blackwood Division of the Duke Forest. It consists of four free-air CO₂ enrichment (FACE) plots that provide elevated atmospheric CO₂ concentration and four plots that provide ambient CO₂ control. The system has been in operation since June, 1994 in the prototype plot, and since August, 1996 in the three additional plots. The prototype plot and its reference were halved with a barrier inserted in the soil in 1998 to conduct, together with five additional plot pairs, CO₂ × soil nutrient enrichment experiments. The rest of the plots were partitioned in early 2005 and incorporated into the CO₂ × nutrient experiment. To increase statistical power, four additional ambient plots were established in January, 2005, halved, and one half of each fertilized. Core funding for the Duke Forest FACE Facility has been provided by the Office of Science (BER), U.S. Department of Energy.