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Taking Stock of Circumboreal Forest Carbon With Ground Measurements, Airborne and Spaceborne LiDARThe boreal forest accounts for one-third of global forests, but remains largely inaccessible to ground-based measurements and monitoring. It contains large quantities of carbon in its vegetation and soils, and research suggests that it will be subject to increasingly severe climate-driven disturbance. We employ a suite of ground-, airborne- and space-based measurement techniques to derive the first satellite LiDAR-based estimates of aboveground carbon for the entire circumboreal forest biome. Incorporating these inventory techniques with uncertainty analysis, we estimate total aboveground carbon of 38 +/- 3.1 Pg. This boreal forest carbon is mostly concentrated from 50 to 55degN in eastern Canada and from 55 to 60degN in eastern Eurasia. Both of these regions are expected to warm >3 C by 2100, and monitoring the effects of warming on these stocks is important to understanding its future carbon balance. Our maps establish a baseline for future quantification of circumboreal carbon and the described technique should provide a robust method for future monitoring of the spatial and temporal changes of the aboveground carbon content.
Document ID
20140017373
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Neigh, Christopher S. R.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Nelson, Ross F.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Ranson, K. Jon
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Margolis, Hank A.
(Laval Univ. Sainte-Foye, Quebec, Canada)
Montesano, Paul M.
(Sigma Space Corp. Lanham, MD, United States)
Sun, Guoqing
(Maryland Univ. College Park, MD, United States)
Kharuk, Viacheslav
(Academy of Sciences (Russia) Krasnoyarsk, Russian Federation)
Naesset, Erik
(Norwegian University of Life Sciences Oslo, Norway)
Wulder, Michael A.
(Canadian Forestry Service Victoria, British Columbia, Canada)
Andersen, Hans-Erik
(Washington Univ. Seattle, WA, United States)
Date Acquired
December 12, 2014
Publication Date
July 29, 2013
Publication Information
Publication: Remote Sensing of Environment
Publisher: Elsevier
Volume: 137
Subject Category
Earth Resources And Remote Sensing
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN14614
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNG09HP18C
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNX12AD03A
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNH06ZDA001N-CARBON
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNH08ZDA001N-TE
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
Keywords
Biomass
Lidar
Carbon
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