Kasischke E.S. author Amiro B.D. author Barger N.N. author French N.H.F. author Goetz S.J. author Grosse G. author Harmon M.E. author Hicke J.A. author Liu Shuguang author Masek J.G. author 2013 FY 2013 Because it is an important regulator of terrestrial carbon cycling in North America, extensive research on natural and human disturbances has been carried out as part of the North American Carbon Program and the CarboNA project. A synthesis of various components of this research was carried out, and the results presented in the papers contained in this special section. While the synthesis primarily focused on the impacts of fire, insects/disease, and harvesting on terrestrial carbon cycling in forests, several groups focused on impacts of disturbance on woody encroachment in western U.S. drylands and on soil carbon present in northern high latitude regions. Here, we present a summary of the results from these papers, along with the findings and recommendations from the disturbance synthesis. budget carbon carbon budget carbon cycling component disturbance ecosystems – structure and dynamics fire forest forest disturbance harvesting human human disturbance impact journal articles North America North American Carbon Program permafrost cryosphere and high-latitude processes remote sensing research soil soil carbon synthesis woody encroachment IN PRESS exported from refbase (http://eros.usgs.gov/refbase/show.php?record=25700), last updated on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 09:36:45 -0600 text http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jgrg.20027 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jgrg.20027 Kasischke_etal2013 EROS @ cdeering @ 1314 2013 continuing periodical academic journal http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jgrg.20027