Houghton, Richard (Skee): Woodwell Climate Research Center (Project Lead)
Goward, Samuel: University of Maryland (Co-Investigator)
Samanta, Sudeep: Woodwell Climate Research Center (Participant)
Project Funding:
2006 - 2009
NRA: 2005 NASA: North American Carbon Program
Funded by NASA
Abstract:
A previous analysis by the principal investigator estimated the annual flux of carbon for the U.S. with census-based data on changes in land use, forestry, and fire management. The estimated sink in forests was low compared with studies based on data from forest inventories, but there were a number of processes omitted from the historical analysis. A reanalysis is warranted. The conterminous U.S. is a particularly good region for a detailed historical reconstruction because of the unusually rich assortment of historical data available. Landsat data on disturbance, available since 1972 offer a second data set, independent of census-based reconstructions of land-use change, for calculating sources and sinks of carbon during recent decades. These Landsat data are currently being compiled under on-going NACP projects. This proposal seeks support (1) to update the historical analysis based on census data and (2) to use the recent data compiled from the NACP Landsat analyses (3) to calculate two independent estimates of carbon flux for the conterminous U.S. over the period 1972-2000. Differences in the estimates of carbon flux (census-based versus Landsat-based) will reveal strengths and weakness of the two approaches and will be used to construct a 'harmonized' estimate of carbon flux more accurate than possible from either approach by itself. For example, changes in land use obtained from the Landsat record miss disturbances before 1972 and thus underestimate both the area of recovering forests and the carbon accumulating in them. On the other hand, changes in land use based on census data (agricultural and forestry statistics) miss important processes affecting carbon storage (for example, natural disturbances). The overall objective of the proposed research is to determine the annual net flux of carbon for terrestrial ecosystems of the conterminous U.S. The emphasis will be on forests and will include the effects of forest conversion to agricultural land, abandonment of agricultural land, harvest of forests, other forms of forest management, wildfires, other disturbances, and forest growth. The approach will use an improved carbon model with two independent data sets of land-use/cover change: one, historical census data; the second, recent Landsat data. Model results will be tested against SRTM-derived estimates of aboveground biomass (from another on-going NACP project). The results of the proposed research are expected to contribute significantly to NASA's goals in at least two respects. First, the research will produce a new estimate of carbon flux for the conterminous U.S. The estimate will be spatially specific, based on a harmonization of historical, census data and Landsat data. The results will include an evaluation of the error of the estimated flux, including the effect of spatial resolution on error. Second, the research will produce a spatial/historical (1700-2005) data set of land-use change for the forests of the U.S.
Publications:
Hall, F. G., Bergen, K., Blair, J. B., Dubayah, R., Houghton, R., Hurtt, G., Kellndorfer, J., Lefsky, M., Ranson, J., Saatchi, S., Shugart, H. H., Wickland, D. 2011. Characterizing 3D vegetation structure from space: Mission requirements. Remote Sensing of Environment. 115(11), 2753-2775. DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2011.01.024
Hurtt, G. C., Chini, L. P., Frolking, S., Betts, R. A., Feddema, J., Fischer, G., Fisk, J. P., Hibbard, K., Houghton, R. A., Janetos, A., Jones, C. D., Kindermann, G., Kinoshita, T., Klein Goldewijk, K., Riahi, K., Shevliakova, E., Smith, S., Stehfest, E., Thomson, A., Thornton, P., van Vuuren, D. P., Wang, Y. P. 2011. Harmonization of land-use scenarios for the period 1500-2100: 600 years of global gridded annual land-use transitions, wood harvest, and resulting secondary lands. Climatic Change. 109(1-2), 117-161. DOI: 10.1007/s10584-011-0153-2
Masek, J. G., Cohen, W. B., Leckie, D., Wulder, M. A., Vargas, R., de Jong, B., Healey, S., Law, B., Birdsey, R., Houghton, R. A., Mildrexler, D., Goward, S., Smith, W. B. 2011. Recent rates of forest harvest and conversion in North America. Journal of Geophysical Research. 116. DOI: 10.1029/2010JG001471
Houghton, R. A. 2017. How well do we know the flux of CO2 from land-use change? Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology. 62(5), 337-351. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0889.2010.00473.x
Ryan, M.G., M.E. Harmon, R.A. Birdsey, C.P. Giardina, L.S. Heath, R.A. Houghton, R.B. Jackson, D.C. McKinley, J.F. Morrison, B.C. Murray, D.E. Pataki, and K.E. Skog. 2010. A synthesis of the science on forests and carbon for U.S. forests. Issues in Ecology, Report Number 13, 15 pp. http://www.esa.org/esa/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/issue13.pdf
Houghton, R. A., Hall, F., Goetz, S. J. 2009. Importance of biomass in the global carbon cycle. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. 114(G2). DOI: 10.1029/2009JG000935
Goward, S.N., J.G. Masek, W. Cohen, G. Moisen, G.J. Collatz, S. Healey, R.A. Houghton, C. Huang, R. Kennedy, B. Law, S. Powell, D. Turner, and M.A. Wulder. 2008. Forest disturbance and North American carbon flux. Eos 89:105-106.
Houghton, R.A., and S.J. Goetz. 2008. New satellites help quantify carbon sources and sinks. Eos 89(43):417-418.
Jeon, S. B., Woodcock, C. E., Zhao, F., Yang, X., Houghton, R. A., Hackler, J. L. 2008. The Effects of Land Use Change on the Terrestrial Carbon Budgets of New England. IGARSS 2008 - 2008 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. DOI: 10.1109/IGARSS.2008.4780063
CCSP, 2007. The First State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR): The North American Carbon Budget and Implications for the Global Carbon Cycle. A Report by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research [King, A.W., L. Dilling, G.P. Zimmerman, D.M. Fairman, R.A. Houghton, G. Marland, A.Z. Rose, and T.J. Wilbanks (eds.)]. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, NC, USA, 242 pp.
Houghton, R.A., 2007: The carbon cycle in land and water systems. In: The First State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR): The North American Carbon Budget and Implications for the Global Carbon Cycle. A Report by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research [King, A.W., L. Dilling, G.P. Zimmerman, D.M. Fairman, R.A. Houghton, G. Marland, A.Z. Rose, and T.J. Wilbanks (eds.)]. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, NC, USA, pp. 103-106.
Pacala, S., R.A. Birdsey, S.D. Bridgham, R.T. Conant, K. Davis, B. Hales, R.A. Houghton, J.C. Jenkins, M. Johnston, G. Marland, and K. Paustian, 2007: The North American carbon budget past and present. In: The First State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR): The North American Carbon Budget and Implications for the Global Carbon Cycle. A Report by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research [King, A.W., L. Dilling, G.P. Zimmerman, D.M. Fairman, R.A. Houghton, G. Marland, A.Z. Rose, and T.J. Wilbanks (eds.)]. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, NC, USA, pp. 29-36.
More details may be found in the following project profile(s):
