CarboNA: a Joint North American
Carbon Program
Country leads/coordinators:
Nancy Cavallaro (USDA)
Catherine Ste. Marie (Canadian Forest Service)
Julia Martinez (SEMARNAT)
http://nacarbon.org/carbona
CarboNA: a Joint North American
Carbon Program
Science Steering Committee Co-Chairs:
Hank Margolis (Laval University)
Ben deJong (ECOSUR)
Scott Denning (Colorado State University)
Statement of Common Interest
• The Government Coordination Working Group
approved a Statement of Common Interest and
Agreement to Work Together
– sets forth the justification, purpose, and preliminary
structure of the program
– Establishes the GCWG, Science Steering Committee
– Calls for information exchange/shared results, joint
workshops, scientific integration, common
measurement protocols where appropriate,
international projects/initiatives to be considered for
cooperative funding.
North American Carbon Program
(CarboNA) Science Plan
Over-riding science questions:
• What is the current carbon budget of North American land, water, and
adjacent oceans, and what is the uncertainty of the estimates?
• What natural processes control the variability of carbon stocks and fluxes at
the continental and sub continental scales? What societal processes determine
carbon emissions and sinks at these scales?
• What are the past and projected trends in the North American carbon
budget, and what factors are expected to be important in the future? When
will sinks saturate? Will they become sources? What are possible surprises?
• What will be the response of terrestrial ecosystems and coastal oceans to
climate change and rising atmospheric CO2? Which stocks and flows of
carbon are most vulnerable?
• What is the role of economic development, energy technology, trade, and
policy actions in driving changes in fossil fuel emissions?
• What are the impacts of different greenhouse gas policies on future carbon
stocks and fluxes? What data are needed? How can we improve carbon
observation systems?
North American Carbon Program
(CarboNA) Science Plan
Special emphasis for international collaboration in North America:
• Monitor and predict responses of ecosystem carbon cycles to natural
variability in climate and disturbance regimes, to increasing CO2 and to climate
change along an ecological gradient from the Arctic to the Tropics;
• Estimate continental budgets for atmospheric greenhouse gases using data
from land-based, airborne, marine, and space borne platforms including the
integration of inventory-based carbon stock estimates for the three member
countries;
• Establish a working group to identify research needs leading to improved
understanding and quantification of carbon cycle processes and budgets in
the Gulf of Mexico Basin;
• Improve understanding of the current state and likely future changes in carbon
cycling in continental coastal ocean environments; of impacts on fisheries and
coastal economies; of exchange between coastal oceans and deep ocean
basins; and of air-sea gas exchange;
North American Carbon Program
(CarboNA) Science Plan
Special emphasis for international collaboration in
North America:
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Government–level agreements on data sharing and harmonization,
standardization of data collection and management, and criteria for using data,
This should include development of trilateral databases with spatial data from
tropics to Arctic following international protocols to the extent practicable;
Develop an approach for a long-term, consistent, and integrated observation and
reporting system for greenhouse gas mitigation across North America;
Identify impacts of possible tri-lateral mitigation strategies and opportunities for
reducing emissions, increasing greenhouse gas sequestration, sustainable use of
biofuels; and how the 3 countries can work together to implement them. (Also
how policies in one country might affect the others;
Coordinate efforts to develop and deploy decision-support tools to explore the
socio-demographic, socio-economic, and socio-political causes of variability in
CO2 emissions, as a way to mitigate increases, at the national, state and local level.
This could help assess the effectiveness of actions undertaken by stakeholders
aimed at mitigating CO2 emissions or adapting to climate change.
CarboNA projects: criteria and process
Given its mandate and the many and varied sources of funding, CarboNA requires
flexible criteria and broad guidelines for designating participating projects and
investigators.
• A CarboNA project must be of scientific interest to the three countries. It must
be relevant to CarboNA Over-riding continental-scale science questions* and
is expected to develop results and products that CarboNA needs to achieve its
Goals*.
• A CarboNA project must include collaboration of scientists from at least two of
the three North American countries.
• A CarboNA project must clearly address one of CarboNA’s Special emphasis
areas for international collaboration in North America*. CarboNA Projects
are generally but not necessarily relevant to continental scale analyses,
continental gradients or cross-border gradients and regional studies.
• A CarboNA project must be endorsed by a minimum of one government
agency, or by one member of the CarbonNA Government Coordination
Working Group from at least two of the nations participating in CarboNA.
Example CarboNA projects
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CarboNA-04: Assessing the impacts of fire and insect disturbance on the terrestrial C
budgets of forested areas in Canada, Alaska, and the Western US.
CarboNA-05: Collaboration with Mexico on Forest Carbon Budget
CarboNA-07: Canadian Carbon Program- Flux towers, atmospheric GHG conc., topdown / bottom-up modeling, integration of process and inventory models
CarboNA-08: Ameriflux network
CarboNA-09: Estimating the Amount, Spatial Distribution, and Statistical Uncertainty of
Aboveground Carbon Stocks of the North American Boreal Forest Using the ICESATGLAS Spaceborne Lidar
CarboNA-10: Governement Related Initiatives Program CSA-AAFC: Adapting cropping
systems to climate variations: deriving above-ground crop biomass from hyperspectral
reflectance and radar
CarboNA-12: National Carbon and Greenhouse Gas Accounting and Verification System
– carbon budget for agricultural land in Canada
CarboNA-17: Forest land dynamics and management opportunities for North America
CarboNA-18: RESUCCCITIES Initiative to Attain Resilient and Sustainable Relationships
among Carbon, Climate and Cities
CarboNA-19: Field protocols for terrestrial carbon accounting, and data submission
protocols manual (GTOS); based on the west coast design, developed for AmeriFlux and
NACP, consistent with 1ha FIA inventory plots.
Some examples of relevant
collaborations
CarbonTracker
“Carbon
Weather”
January
(net CO2emission)
CarbonTracker™
Long-term
Observations
July
(net CO2 uptake)
An emerging highaltitude observatory in
Mexico yields
information on broadscale fluxes of GHGs
Carbon Dioxide (ppm)
18,700 ft.
Sulfur Hexafluoride (ppt)
Sierra Negra Orizaba
(Alert, Canada, coop
since 1985)
Recent Atmospheric Monitoring Site
in Saskatchewan
•
•
•
Cooperative
arrangement
between NOAA and
EC
Now has
continuous
measurements
from tower (not
shown here)
Used in
CarbonTracker
FLUXNET-AmeriFlux-CCP Networks
Fluxnet-Canada: 2002-2007
Canadian Carbon Program (CCP): 2007-2010
Slide 15
CarboNA-06: Application of the Carbon Budget Model
of the Canadian Forest Sector (CBM-CFS3) to Mexico
(slides from Werner Kurz, Canadian Forest Service)
• Collaborative project between ConaFor, EcoSur, other
Mexican research centers and Canadian Forest Service
• Support for reporting of GHG emissions and removals, and
analysis of REDD baseline and alternative scenarios.
• Currently testing of model at several pilot sites in wide range
of ecological conditions in Mexico
• Preparation of input data for national-scale application of the
model
Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector (CBM-CFS3)
• An operational-scale model of stand and landscape-level forest C
dynamics.
• Allows forest managers to assess carbon implications of forest
management: increase sinks, reduce sources
• Compliant with IPCC reporting guidelines
• Freely available at:
carbon.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca
Kurz et al. 2009, Ecol. Modelling
CBM-CFS3 Application in Mexico
• Developed spatial stratification for compilation of national data.
• Conducted 2 workshops: project planning and user training.
• Spanish-language interface for CBM-CFS3 under development.
94 Spatial Units
Forest stands
> 60,000
+ Classifiers
7 Ecoregions
& 32 States
CBM-CFS3 Application in Mexico
Contacts: Dr. Ben de Jong, Ecosur
Marcela Olguin, Ecosur
Dr. Werner Kurz, Canadian Forest Service
CarboNA-09: Estimating the Amount, Spatial Distribution, &
Statistical Uncertainty of Aboveground C Stocks of the N.A.
Boreal Forest Using ICESAT-GLAS Spaceborne Lidar
(slides from Hank Margolis, Laval University, Quebec)
• Idea was the ICESat satellite carried a lidar to measure polar ice
sheet elevation could also be sensitive to forest biomass.
• Pilot study where Quebec scientists worked closely with scientists
at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center to use an airborne lidar to
sample both provincial forest inventory plots and the ICESat ground
tracks.
• This allowed them to scale the >100,000 ICESat laser pulses
acquired in Quebec to estimate aboveground forest biomass for the
province.
• The successful pilot study has allowed US and Canadian scientists to
expand the approach to the entire boreal forest of North America.
• And hopefully to soon work with Mexican collaborators to apply the
approach to the entire forest area of North America.
97 GLAS Orbits in Quebec – Autumn 2003
104,044 pulses
CarboNA-09: Estimating the Amount, Spatial Distribution, &
Statistical Uncertainty of Aboveground C Stocks of the N.A.
Boreal Forest Using ICESAT-GLAS Spaceborne Lidar
• Idea was the ICESat satellite carried a lidar to measure polar ice
sheet elevation could also be sensitive to forest biomass.
• Pilot study where Quebec scientists worked closely with scientists
at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center to use an airborne lidar to
sample both provincial forest inventory plots and the ICESat ground
tracks.
• This allowed them to scale the >100,000 ICESat laser pulses
acquired in Quebec to estimate aboveground forest biomass for the
province.
• The successful pilot study has allowed US and Canadian scientists to
expand the approach to the entire boreal forest of North America.
• And hopefully to soon work with Mexican collaborators to apply the
approach to the entire forest area of North America.
CarboNA-09: Estimating the Amount, Spatial Distribution, &
Statistical Uncertainty of Aboveground C Stocks of the N.A.
Boreal Forest Using ICESAT-GLAS Spaceborne Lidar
• Idea was the ICESat satellite carried a lidar to measure polar ice
sheet elevation could also be sensitive to forest biomass.
• Pilot study where Quebec scientists worked closely with scientists
at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center to use an airborne lidar to
sample both provincial forest inventory plots and the ICESat ground
tracks.
• This allowed them to scale the >100,000 ICESat laser pulses
acquired in Quebec to estimate aboveground forest biomass for the
province.
• The successful pilot study has allowed US and Canadian scientists to
expand the approach to the entire boreal forest of North America.
• And hopefully to soon work with Mexican collaborators to apply the
approach to the entire forest area of North America.
ICESat-1 Coverage
11 million pulses in boreal
CarboNA-09: Estimating the Amount, Spatial Distribution, &
Statistical Uncertainty of Aboveground C Stocks of the N.A.
Boreal Forest Using ICESAT-GLAS Spaceborne Lidar
• Idea was the ICESat satellite carried a lidar to measure polar ice
sheet elevation could also be sensitive to forest biomass.
• Pilot study where Quebec scientists worked closely with scientists
at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center to use an airborne lidar to
sample both provincial forest inventory plots and the ICESat ground
tracks.
• This allowed them to scale the >100,000 ICESat laser pulses
acquired in Quebec to estimate aboveground forest biomass for the
province.
• The successful pilot study has allowed US and Canadian scientists to
expand the approach to the entire boreal forest of North America.
• And hopefully to soon work with Mexican collaborators to apply the
approach to the entire forest area of North America.
A call for collaborators, proposals
• A list of currently proposed projects and profiles
can be found on the CarboNA website:
http://nacarbon.org/cgibin/carbona/investigations/inv_profiles.pl
• Some are looking for collaborators—Yukon river,
Health and Agriculture, Crop Biomass, Ocean
Acidification, RESUCCCITIES
• We welcome additional projects
• NACP projects may be co-listed with CarboNA if
they meet the criteria
NACP Interim syntheses underway• Most include Canadian scientists, some also
include Mexican scientists
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Regional/continental comparison-CA, MX
Site-based model-data comparison-CA
Midcontinent intensive regional syntheses-?
Non-CO2 greenhouse gas synthesis-CA
Disturbance effects on carbon fluxes-CA, MX
Coastal ocean carbon cycle synthesis-CA, MX
MsTMIP Synthesis (multi-scale synthesis and
intercomparison project)-?
Slide 29
Some observations
• U.S. looking for international collaboration on human
interactions and cities
• Need for more ocean/coastal coordination--take advantage
of increased interest/funding in the Gulf of Mexico on the
part of MX due to the oil spill
• Take advantage of new initiative in MX (CONACYT) for and
observations network-coordinate with NEON?
• Horizontal movement of carbon-riverine fluxes, estuarine
processes, wetlands, interfaces between ecosystem types
• Take advantage of U.S. initiative in soil carbon protocols,
measurement and modeling
• Some programs and observations systems are in jeopardy-Can more prominent international interest influence
national funding for systems and studies in danger of losing
funding?