Modeling carbon storage across a heterogeneous mixed temperate forest: the influence of forest type specificity on regional-scale carbon storage estimates
| Autor: | David Gudex-Cross, Scott C. Merrill, Alison Adams, Gillian L. Galford, Jennifer Pontius |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
0301 basic medicine
Biomass (ecology) 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences Ecology Geography Planning and Development Temperate forest chemistry.chemical_element Land cover 01 natural sciences Basal area Carbon cycle 03 medical and health sciences 030104 developmental biology chemistry Greenhouse gas Environmental science Physical geography Landscape ecology Carbon 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Nature and Landscape Conservation |
| Zdroj: | Landscape Ecology. 33:641-658 |
| ISSN: | 1572-9761 0921-2973 |
| Popis: | Accurately assessing forest carbon storage on a landscape scale is critical to understanding global carbon cycles and the effects of land cover changes on ecological processes. Calculations of regional-scale forest carbon storage that rely on maps of land cover typically reflect only coarse forest classes. How differences in carbon stored by different tree species may affect such assessments is largely unexplored. We examined a range of forest carbon storage models to understand the effects of forest type specificity on carbon storage estimates in the northeastern United States. Models estimated forest carbon in total aboveground and coarse root biomass based on three levels of forest classification specificity: (1) relative basal area by species, (2) species associations, and (3) broad forest types per IPCC (in: IPCC guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories, IPCC, Japan, 2006) guidelines. The specificity of forest type classifications influenced results with generally lower carbon storage estimates resulting from higher-specificity forest classifications. The two most specific models, with mean carbon storage estimates of 103–107 Mg/ha, were most accurate compared to field validation points. These estimates are greater than 2013 field-based U.S. Forest Service estimates (84–90 Mg/ha). There are many sources of uncertainty in landscape-scale carbon storage assessments. Here we show that improving detail in one of these sources, forest stand composition, increases the accuracy of these assessments, and better reflects carbon storage patterns across heterogeneous landscapes. While more work is needed, particularly to improve stand age maps, this information can inform the interpretation of current carbon storage estimates and improve future estimates in heterogeneous forests. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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