The potential negative effects of human activities on global climate have generated significant interests in recent years.\r\nReducing or offsetting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions has been central to such discussion among and between state and federal\r\nregulatory agencies. Although emissions data from industrial, transportation and agronomic systems have been studied\r\nextensively, little data exists for managed ecosystems such as residential and municipal landscapes or sports turf facilities. Even\r\nthough these intensively managed landscapes are a significant component of modern agriculture in the United States, very little\r\nCO2 emission studies have been conducted on these systems. The objective of this study was to quantify energy inputs and the\r\ncarbon emissions of a standard size 18-hole golf course in California�s Central Valley, one of the most productive agricultural\r\nregions of the world. Carbon dioxide emissions from annual maintenance and carbon sequestered by soils and vegetation of\r\nsuch intensively managed ecosystems were also examined. These analyses included energy inputs required for equipment\r\nmanufacturing and subsequent annual fuel consumption from the use of equipment during daily operations. Our estimates\r\nindicated that the total energy requirement for this golf course was 1149 GJ year-1 or 13.1 GJ ha-1 year-1. The carbon emissions\r\ncalculated utilizing these energy input estimates indicated that this site also sequesters more CO2 than it generates during routine\r\nturfgrass maintenance operations.
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