Translation to the New TCO Panel
Beverly Law
Prof. Global Change Forest Science
Science Chair, AmeriFlux Network
Oregon State University
Protocols for Data Collection and Submission
• Need:
– Uniform methods, standards for
high quality observations
– Uniform database for global
assessments
• Important standards/definitions:
– Carbon stocks in vegetation and soil,
productivity, ecosystem &
component fluxes
– Vegetation types
– Land use
• Reference for other documents
(ECV, GEO Carbon Report)
U.S. Department of Energy
Protocols
– Carbon stocks in forests, agricultural crops, shrublands
• Live and dead wood in forests (revise – explicit estimates of
biomass mortality by species + metadata)
• Understory vegetation in forests (specify biomass mortality)
• Foliar, litter carbon
• Soil carbon
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NPP
LAI
Ecosystem CO2 & water fluxes
Component fluxes (e.g. soil resp.)
Foliar, litter, soil C & N content
Relevant to land degradation
FLUXNET: A Global Network of Observation Sites
500+ Sites, 10 Regional Networks, 45 Countries
Quantify and understand causes of variation in terrestrial
exchange of carbon, water and energy with atmosphere
www.fluxdata.org
FLUXNET: Global Terrestrial Flux Observations
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Carbon/water/energy fluxes
Meteorology, soil and plant variables
Multiple biomes and disturbances in a broad range of climate
Standardized database, shared protocols (Law et al. FAO 2008)
Transitional activities
– Contribute to:
• Clarification of roles of programs to reduce redundancy
• Ensuring coherence of products, terminology, methods,
and standards
• Process for feedback among programs and with
research developments
– Incorporate land degradation – relevant to carbon
– GEO Carbon Report
Proposed future activities
– Interactions among programs
– Update FAO field and data submission protocols
• Ecosystem variables relevant to terrestrial carbon, including land
degradation
• Fill existing gaps (e.g. methods for tropical forests)
• Broad agreement
– Recommendations for operational systems (depending on
resources)
• Optimize location and number of in situ observations
• Land degradation, deforestation, desertification, drought effects
Moderate Resolution Remote Sensing
Deforestation
GOFC-GOLD Recommendations
(Huang et al. 2009)
Moderate Resolution Remote Sensing
Desertification
GEO Integrated Global
Carbon Observations
– Provide long-term observations required to
improve the understanding of the current state
and future behavior of the global carbon cycle
– Monitor and assess the effectiveness of carbon
sequestration and/or emission reduction activities
on global atmospheric CO2 levels
Integrated Global Carbon Observations:
Essential Elements (GEO Carbon Report)
• Terrestrial ecosystem flux observations (CO2,
water vapor, heat fluxes)
• Ocean and atmosphere in situ measurements
• Inventories
• Global satellite data
• Models to integrate these observations for
spatial maps of carbon stocks and fluxes
• Operational system for policy relevant carbon
information
Issues
• Continuity of and gaps in existing carbon observation systems
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Landsat Data Continuity Mission starts 2012 (2 yr gap 2010-2012)
Terrestrial flux regional networks
Spatial & temporal continuity of soil carbon monitoring, methods used
Carbon variables missing in current inventories
• Communicate operational observation needs
• Incorporating new methods of measurement/analysis/integration
LCDM sensor
LandTrendr: Landsat-based Detection of Trends in
Disturbance and Recovery
Steps in the LandTrendr process
Prepare stack of
yearly imagery
Evaluate veracity
of selected events
Extract spectral
trajectories for pixels
Extract summary
information from
segments
Statistically identify and fit
segments with consistent trends
(Kennedy et al., OSU)
Integration for Regional Mapping
of Terrestrial Carbon
Terrestrial Carbon Modeling
SINKS
SOURCES
Biosphere
CO2 Flux
Observations
Understanding
of terrestrial
carbon
processes
Inventories
Carbon Stocks
Spatial data:
Land-use,
land cover,
meteorology
Maps of
Terrestrial
Carbon Stocks
and Fluxes
(Law et al. 2006)
Georeferenced
emissions
inventories
Atmospheric
measurements
Atmospheric
Transport model
Climate and weather
fields
Ocean time series
Biogeochemical
pCO2
Remote sensing
Atmospheric
CO2
Ocean carbon
model
Coastal
studies
Surface observation
optimized
Fluxes
Terrestrial
rivers carbon
model
Lateral fluxes
pCO2
nutrients
Water column
inventories
Data
assimilation
Ocean remote
sensing
Remote sensing of
Vegetation properties
Ocean color
Altimetry
Winds
SST
SSS
Growth
Land cover /use
Fires
Biomass
Radiation
optimized
model
parameters
Eddy-covariance
flux towers
Biomass
soil carbon
inventories
Ecological
studies