Project Funding: 2013 - 2016

NRA: 2013 NASA: Carbon Monitoring System   

Funded by NASA

Abstract:
Rationale: Mexico is a mega-diverse country where nearly 40% of its territory is covered by forests. The long-term impacts of land use and anthropogenic changes have fragmented and fundamentally transformed Mexican landscapes. Therefore, forests in Mexico are determined by climate gradients and land history creating a heterogeneous landscape. The most important land use change types having caused severe ecological degradation include: deforestation, high impact livestock grazing, and soil tillage. Furthermore, Mexico has shown an average rate of deforestation of nearly 550,000 ha year for the period 1993-2007 with a slight increase in natural forest regeneration, particularly in southern Mexico. It is estimated that gross primary productivity (GPP) of the conterminous USA is ~7 PgC, but Mexico's ecosystems uptake ~2.6 PgC yr-1 with only 1/3 of the USA land mass. During the last decade the scientific capacity of Mexican scientists has rapidly increased and state-of-the-art measurements on carbon dynamics are now available at representative landscapes, and nationally supported by remote sensing and a national forest inventory. Thus, the time is ripe to test different approaches towards a framework for monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) to support implementation of REDD+ across a gradient of forests in Mexico. Overall goal: to analyze carbon stocks and dynamics from ecosystem- to the regional-scale as well as characterize and quantify the errors and uncertainties across scales for the MRV to support implementation of REDD+ in Mexican forests. Specific objectives: 1) standardize ongoing methodologies for upscaling forest inventories and carbon dynamics measurements across 6 intensive forest monitoring sites; 2) characterize and quantify the errors and uncertainties in measurements and ecosystem models (BESS, DNDC) and remote sensing approaches (MODIS) for upscaling purposes of carbon dynamics in Mexican Forests; 3) identify hot-spots suitable for REDD+ and assess the potential vulnerability and variability of carbon dynamics at the national scale for the last 13 years. Approach: this proposal builds upon ongoing efforts by the USDA Forest Service (support by USAID and the Commission for Environmental Cooperation) and the University of Delaware to study carbon dynamics in ecosystems across Mexico. This proposal will consolidate collaboration with Mexican scientists across six intensive forest monitoring sites (Tier 3) representing different forest types (evergreen, deciduous, mix, mangrove). Detailed data, including forest inventory, LIDAR, and net ecosystem exchange (NEE; using the eddy covariance technique) is already available at most sites. First, this proposal will standardize/harmonize the available data across sites (forest inventory, eddy covariance). Second, we will validate biomass, NEE, and gross primary productivity (GPP) at the site level based on forest inventories and eddy covariance measurements with ecosystem models (BESS, DNDC), and remote sensing approaches (MODIS). Third, errors and uncertainties will be quantified at the ecosystem-level and at the regional scale for estimation of carbon socks and carbon dynamics across Mexican forests. Finally, we will use 13 years of archived remote sensing information (MODIS 2000-2013) to identify hot-spots, extreme values and trends at the regional scale that will provide insights for establishment for REDD+ initiatives. Significance: This proposal supports NASA carbon cycle research through validation of MODIS products through measurements of forest inventories, and cross-validation with other models. This study will generate harmonized datasets on carbon cycle science in Mexico to make them comparable to datasets available in the United States.

Publications:

Barba, J., Cueva, A., Bahn, M., Barron-Gafford, G. A., Bond-Lamberty, B., Hanson, P. J., Jaimes, A., Kulmala, L., Pumpanen, J., Scott, R. L., Wohlfahrt, G., Vargas, R. 2018. Comparing ecosystem and soil respiration: Review and key challenges of tower-based and soil measurements. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. 249, 434-443. DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2017.10.028

Biederman, J. A., Scott, R. L., Bell, T. W., Bowling, D. R., Dore, S., Garatuza-Payan, J., Kolb, T. E., Krishnan, P., Krofcheck, D. J., Litvak, M. E., Maurer, G. E., Meyers, T. P., Oechel, W. C., Papuga, S. A., Ponce-Campos, G. E., Rodriguez, J. C., Smith, W. K., Vargas, R., Watts, C. J., Yepez, E. A., Goulden, M. L. 2017. CO 2 exchange and evapotranspiration across dryland ecosystems of southwestern North America. Global Change Biology. 23(10), 4204-4221. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.13686

Castro, A., Martinez-Osuna, J. F., Michel, R., Escoto-Rodriguez, M., Bullock, S. H., Cueva, A., Lopez-Reyes, E., Reimer, J., Salazar, M., Villarreal, S., Vargas, R. 2017. A low-cost modular data-acquisition system for monitoring biometeorological variables. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. 141, 357-371. DOI: 10.1016/j.compag.2017.08.010

Cueva, A., Bullock, S. H., Lopez-Reyes, E., Vargas, R. 2017. Potential bias of daily soil CO2 efflux estimates due to sampling time. Scientific Reports. 7(1). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-11849-y

FAO, and ITPS. 2015. Status of the World’s Soil Resources (SWSR) – Main Report. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils, Rome, Italy. ISBN: 978-92-5-109004-6 http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/c6814873-efc3-41db-b7d3-2081a10ede50/

Hengl, T., Mendes de Jesus, J., Heuvelink, G. B. M., Ruiperez Gonzalez, M., Kilibarda, M., Blagotic, A., Shangguan, W., Wright, M. N., Geng, X., Bauer-Marschallinger, B., Guevara, M. A., Vargas, R., MacMillan, R. A., Batjes, N. H., Leenaars, J. G. B., Ribeiro, E., Wheeler, I., Mantel, S., Kempen, B. 2017. SoilGrids250m: Global gridded soil information based on machine learning. PLOS ONE. 12(2), e0169748. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0169748

Paz, F., and J. Wong, editors. 2015. Estado Actual del Conocimiento del Ciclo del Carbono y sus Interacciones en México: Síntesis a 2014. Serie Síntesis Nacionales., Texcoco, Estado de Mexico, Mexico. ISBN: 978-607-96490-2-9. http://pmcarbono.org/pmc/publicaciones/Libro_Merida_2014_PMC_ISBN-web.pdf

Paz, F., J. Wong, and R. Torres, editors. 2015. Estado Actual del Conocimiento del Ciclo del Carbono y sus Interacciones en México: Síntesis a 2015. Serie Síntesis Nacionales, Texcoco, Estado de México, México. ISBN: 978-607-96490-3-6 http://pmcarbono.org/pmc/publicaciones/sintesisn.php

Programa de Investigación en Cambio Climático (PICC) (2015) Reporte Mexicano de Cambio Climático. Grupo I: Bases Científicas, Modelos y Modelación. (Mexican Report on Climate Change. Group I: Scientific Bases, Models and Modeling). Contributing author for the 7th chapter entitled “Ciclos Biogeoquímicos” (Biogeochemical cycles). ISBN: 978-607-02-7522-7. http://www.pincc.unam.mx/libro_reportemex/RMCC_vol1.pdf

Soriano-Luna, M., Angeles-Perez, G., Guevara, M., Birdsey, R., Pan, Y., Vaquera-Huerta, H., Valdez-Lazalde, J., Johnson, K., Vargas, R. 2018. Determinants of Above-Ground Biomass and Its Spatial Variability in a Temperate Forest Managed for Timber Production. Forests. 9(8), 490. DOI: 10.3390/f9080490

Vargas R, Yépez EA, Andrade JL, Angeles G, Arredondo T, Castellanos AE, Delgado-Balbuena J, Garatuza-Payan J, González del Castillo E, Oechel W, Rodriguez JC, Sánchez-Azofeifa A, Velasco E, Vivoni ER, Watts C (2013) Progress and challenges for measurements of water and greenhouse gas fluxes in Mexican ecosystems: MexFlux. Atmosfera. 26(3):325-336

Vargas, R., Alcaraz-Segura, D., Birdsey, R., Brunsell, N. A., Cruz-Gaistardo, C. O., de Jong, B., Etchevers, J., Guevara, M., Hayes, D. J., Johnson, K., Loescher, H. W., Paz, F., Ryu, Y., Sanchez-Mejia, Z., Toledo-Gutierrez, K. P. 2017. Enhancing interoperability to facilitate implementation of REDD+: case study of Mexico. Carbon Management. 8(1), 57-65. DOI: 10.1080/17583004.2017.1285177

Vargas, R., Alin, S., Shrestha, G. 2015. Integrating Carbon Cycle Research into Decision-Making Processes. Eos. 96. DOI: 10.1029/2015EO037893

Villarreal, S., Vargas, R., Yepez, E. A., Acosta, J. S., Castro, A., Escoto-Rodriguez, M., Lopez, E., Martinez-Osuna, J., Rodriguez, J. C., Smith, S. V., Vivoni, E. R., Watts, C. J. 2016. Contrasting precipitation seasonality influences evapotranspiration dynamics in water-limited shrublands. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. 121(2), 494-508. DOI: 10.1002/2015JG003169

Milne, E., Banwart, S. A., Noellemeyer, E., Abson, D. J., Ballabio, C., Bampa, F., Bationo, A., Batjes, N. H., Bernoux, M., Bhattacharyya, T., Black, H., Buschiazzo, D. E., Cai, Z., Cerri, C. E., Cheng, K., Compagnone, C., Conant, R., Coutinho, H. L., de Brogniez, D., Balieiro, F. D. C., Duffy, C., Feller, C., Fidalgo, E. C., da Silva, C. F., Funk, R., Gaudig, G., Gicheru, P. T., Goldhaber, M., Gottschalk, P., Goulet, F., Goverse, T., Grathwohl, P., Joosten, H., Kamoni, P. T., Kihara, J., Krawczynski, R., La Scala, N., Lemanceau, P., Li, L., Li, Z., Lugato, E., Maron, P., Martius, C., Melillo, J., Montanarella, L., Nikolaidis, N., Nziguheba, G., Pan, G., Pascual, U., Paustian, K., Pineiro, G., Powlson, D., Quiroga, A., Richter, D., Sigwalt, A., Six, J., Smith, J., Smith, P., Stocking, M., Tanneberger, F., Termansen, M., van Noordwijk, M., van Wesemael, B., Vargas, R., Victoria, R. L., Waswa, B., Werner, D., Wichmann, S., Wichtmann, W., Zhang, X., Zhao, Y., Zheng, J., Zheng, J. 2015. Soil carbon, multiple benefits. Environmental Development. 13, 33-38. DOI: 10.1016/j.envdev.2014.11.005

Dai, Z., Birdsey, R. A., Johnson, K. D., Dupuy, J. M., Hernandez-Stefanoni, J. L., Richardson, K. 2014. Modeling Carbon Stocks in a Secondary Tropical Dry Forest in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution. 225(4). DOI: 10.1007/s11270-014-1925-x

Biederman, J. A., Scott, R. L., Goulden, M. L., Vargas, R., Litvak, M. E., Kolb, T. E., Yepez, E. A., Oechel, W. C., Blanken, P. D., Bell, T. W., Garatuza-Payan, J., Maurer, G. E., Dore, S., Burns, S. P. 2016. Terrestrial carbon balance in a drier world: the effects of water availability in southwestern North America. Global Change Biology. 22(5), 1867-1879. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.13222

Reimer, J. J., Cueva, A., Gaxiola-Castro, G., Lara-Lara, R., Vargas, R. 2016. Random error analysis of marine xCO2 measurements in a coastal upwelling region. Progress in Oceanography. 143, 1-12. DOI: 10.1016/j.pocean.2016.02.003

Reimer, J. J., Vargas, R., Rivas, D., Gaxiola-Castro, G., Hernandez-Ayon, J. M., Lara-Lara, R. 2015. Sea Surface Temperature Influence on Terrestrial Gross Primary Production along the Southern California Current. PLOS ONE. 10(4), e0125177. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0125177

Rodriguez-Robles, U., Arredondo, J. T., Huber-Sannwald, E., Vargas, R. 2015. Geoecohydrological mechanisms couple soil and leaf water dynamics and facilitate species coexistence in shallow soils of a tropical semiarid mixed forest. New Phytologist. 207(1), 59-69. DOI: 10.1111/nph.13344

Vargas, R., Paz, F., de Jong, B. 2014. Quantification of forest degradation and belowground carbon dynamics: ongoing challenges for monitoring, reporting and verification activities for REDD+. Carbon Management. 4(6), 579-582. DOI: 10.4155/cmt.13.63

Birdsey, R., Angeles-Perez, G., Kurz, W. A., Lister, A., Olguin, M., Pan, Y., Wayson, C., Wilson, B., Johnson, K. 2014. Approaches to monitoring changes in carbon stocks for REDD+. Carbon Management. 4(5), 519-537. DOI: 10.4155/cmt.13.49

Leon, E., Vargas, R., Bullock, S., Lopez, E., Panosso, A. R., La Scala, N. 2014. Hot spots, hot moments, and spatio-temporal controls on soil CO2 efflux in a water-limited ecosystem. Soil Biology and Biochemistry. 77, 12-21. DOI: 10.1016/j.soilbio.2014.05.029

Cueva, A., Bahn, M., Litvak, M., Pumpanen, J., Vargas, R. 2015. A multisite analysis of temporal random errors in soil CO2efflux. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. 120(4), 737-751. DOI: 10.1002/2014JG002690

King, A. W., Andres, R. J., Davis, K. J., Hafer, M., Hayes, D. J., Huntzinger, D. N., de Jong, B., Kurz, W. A., McGuire, A. D., Vargas, R., Wei, Y., West, T. O., Woodall, C. W. 2015. North America's net terrestrial CO<sub>2</sub> exchange with the atmosphere 1990-2009. Biogeosciences. 12(2), 399-414. DOI: 10.5194/bg-12-399-2015

Banwart, S., Black, H., Cai, Z., Gicheru, P., Joosten, H., Victoria, R., Milne, E., Noellemeyer, E., Pascual, U., Nziguheba, G., Vargas, R., Bationo, A., Buschiazzo, D., de-Brogniez, D., Melillo, J., Richter, D., Termansen, M., van Noordwijk, M., Goverse, T., Ballabio, C., Bhattacharyya, T., Goldhaber, M., Nikolaidis, N., Zhao, Y., Funk, R., Duffy, C., Pan, G., la Scala, N., Gottschalk, P., Batjes, N., Six, J., van Wesemael, B., Stocking, M., Bampa, F., Bernoux, M., Feller, C., Lemanceau, P., Montanarella, L. 2014. Benefits of soil carbon: report on the outcomes of an international scientific committee on problems of the environment rapid assessment workshop. Carbon Management. 5(2), 185-192. DOI: 10.1080/17583004.2014.913380

More details may be found in the following project profile(s):

• NASA Terrestrial Ecology (TE) Project Profile
• North American Carbon Program (NACP) Project Profile
• NASA Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) Project Profile