They discovered a possible reduction in the ability of these forests to absorb carbon. That worries Wear and his colleagues because carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas that causes climate change.
The trio of scientists, who worked out of the Forest Service's Southern Research Station, recently had their findings published in the journal Scientific Reports.
The study examined the impacts on forests from such things as fire, disease and cutting, as well as the effects of changing land uses. Data were collected from 40,000 locations from Virginia to Louisiana.
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The scientists said forests in the southeastern U.S. provided a good workshop because they have more forest land than 96 percent of the countries in the world. Further, the forests in the 11 states studied absorb an estimated 15 percent of the carbon emission generated by energy- and transportation sources in the United States.
"This is clearly about climate change mitigation," Wear said. "We are concerned about sequestering carbon from the atmosphere."
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The study shows that future carbon accumulation rates in the forests are sensitive to land-use changes. Choices for land use that either reduce the rate of reforestation or increase the rate of deforestation are key factors in future forest carbon accumulation, according to the study.
"The potential for future carbon accumulation in forests is uncertain due in part to the combined effects of changes in forest growth rates, land use choices, forest management," and a number of other factors, including the direct and indirect effects of climate change, according to the report.
And it's not that there's less forest in the study area. There's actually a little more because the amount of agricultural land being returned to forest has slightly offset the amount of forest lost to urban development, Coulston said.
Read more at Southern Forests' Ability to Suck Carbon From the Air May Be Slowing
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