Beyond biomass to carbon fluxes: application and evaluation of a comprehensive forest carbon monitoring system
Accurate quantification of forest carbon stocks and fluxes over regions is needed to monitor forest resources as they respond to changes in climate, disturbance and management, and also to evaluate contributions of forest sector to the regional and global carbon balances. In previous work we introdu...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abf06d |
| _version_ | 1797747749731434496 |
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| author | Yu Zhou Christopher A Williams Natalia Hasler Huan Gu Robert Kennedy |
| author_facet | Yu Zhou Christopher A Williams Natalia Hasler Huan Gu Robert Kennedy |
| author_sort | Yu Zhou |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Accurate quantification of forest carbon stocks and fluxes over regions is needed to monitor forest resources as they respond to changes in climate, disturbance and management, and also to evaluate contributions of forest sector to the regional and global carbon balances. In previous work we introduced a national forest carbon monitoring system (NFCMS) that combines forest inventory data, satellite remote sensing of stand biomass and forest disturbances, and an ecosystem carbon cycle model to assess contemporary forest carbon dynamics at a 30 m resolution. In this study, we evaluate the NFCMS estimates of biomass and carbon fluxes with available data products for the Pacific Northwest (PNW) region, and then analyze the regional carbon balance over the period 1986–2010. The biomass estimates have good agreements with evaluation datasets (eMapR, NBCD2000, and Hagen2005) at regional and forest type levels, and at spatial scales of 1 km ^2 and larger. Regionwide, PNW forests acted as a stable net sink for atmospheric CO _2 (18.5 Tg C yr ^–1 ) within forestlands. However, harvesting activities removed significant amounts of carbon, equating to over 75% of annual net carbon sink, though only 25% of this (∼3.5 Tg C yr ^–1 ) is emitted to the atmosphere within 50 years. Wildfires contributed modestly to carbon emissions in most years, however, the severe fires of 2002 and 2006 released 16.6 and 7.1 Tg C, respectively. The study demonstrates the potential of the NFCMS framework to serve as a candidate measuring, reporting and verification system, informed by field and remotely sensed inventories, and tracking the carbon balance of the forest sector across the United States. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:55:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c1616109a3f04a12997bce0d5c84835d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:55:05Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-c1616109a3f04a12997bce0d5c84835d2023-08-09T14:57:40ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262021-01-0116505502610.1088/1748-9326/abf06dBeyond biomass to carbon fluxes: application and evaluation of a comprehensive forest carbon monitoring systemYu Zhou0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5544-8342Christopher A Williams1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5047-0639Natalia Hasler2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3280-6792Huan Gu3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1048-8874Robert Kennedy4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5507-474XGraduate School of Geography, Clark University , Worcester, MA 01610, United States of AmericaGraduate School of Geography, Clark University , Worcester, MA 01610, United States of AmericaGraduate School of Geography, Clark University , Worcester, MA 01610, United States of AmericaGraduate School of Geography, Clark University , Worcester, MA 01610, United States of AmericaCollege of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University , Corvallis, OR 97331, United States of AmericaAccurate quantification of forest carbon stocks and fluxes over regions is needed to monitor forest resources as they respond to changes in climate, disturbance and management, and also to evaluate contributions of forest sector to the regional and global carbon balances. In previous work we introduced a national forest carbon monitoring system (NFCMS) that combines forest inventory data, satellite remote sensing of stand biomass and forest disturbances, and an ecosystem carbon cycle model to assess contemporary forest carbon dynamics at a 30 m resolution. In this study, we evaluate the NFCMS estimates of biomass and carbon fluxes with available data products for the Pacific Northwest (PNW) region, and then analyze the regional carbon balance over the period 1986–2010. The biomass estimates have good agreements with evaluation datasets (eMapR, NBCD2000, and Hagen2005) at regional and forest type levels, and at spatial scales of 1 km ^2 and larger. Regionwide, PNW forests acted as a stable net sink for atmospheric CO _2 (18.5 Tg C yr ^–1 ) within forestlands. However, harvesting activities removed significant amounts of carbon, equating to over 75% of annual net carbon sink, though only 25% of this (∼3.5 Tg C yr ^–1 ) is emitted to the atmosphere within 50 years. Wildfires contributed modestly to carbon emissions in most years, however, the severe fires of 2002 and 2006 released 16.6 and 7.1 Tg C, respectively. The study demonstrates the potential of the NFCMS framework to serve as a candidate measuring, reporting and verification system, informed by field and remotely sensed inventories, and tracking the carbon balance of the forest sector across the United States.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abf06dforest inventorymodelingdisturbancesregrowthcarbon balance |
| spellingShingle | Yu Zhou Christopher A Williams Natalia Hasler Huan Gu Robert Kennedy Beyond biomass to carbon fluxes: application and evaluation of a comprehensive forest carbon monitoring system Environmental Research Letters forest inventory modeling disturbances regrowth carbon balance |
| title | Beyond biomass to carbon fluxes: application and evaluation of a comprehensive forest carbon monitoring system |
| title_full | Beyond biomass to carbon fluxes: application and evaluation of a comprehensive forest carbon monitoring system |
| title_fullStr | Beyond biomass to carbon fluxes: application and evaluation of a comprehensive forest carbon monitoring system |
| title_full_unstemmed | Beyond biomass to carbon fluxes: application and evaluation of a comprehensive forest carbon monitoring system |
| title_short | Beyond biomass to carbon fluxes: application and evaluation of a comprehensive forest carbon monitoring system |
| title_sort | beyond biomass to carbon fluxes application and evaluation of a comprehensive forest carbon monitoring system |
| topic | forest inventory modeling disturbances regrowth carbon balance |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abf06d |
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