Incorporating passive and active remote sensing data into an advanced ecosystem model to investigate the role of regional forest disturbance and recovery dynamics on the carbon cycle

Katelyn Dolan, University of Maryland, kdolan@umd.edu (Presenter)
George Hurtt, University of Maryland, gchurtt@umd.edu
Chengquan Huang, University of maryland, chhuang@umd.edu
Ralph Dubayah, University of Maryland, dubayah@umd.edu
Justin Fisk, University of New Hampshire, justin.fisk@unh.edu

Forest disturbance and recovery are critical mechanisms for transferring carbon between the land surface and the atmosphere, yet the role of forest disturbance within the terrestrial carbon cycle still remains uncertain and only recently have these events been accounted for within regional-scale and global carbon models. Adding ecological disturbance into biogeochemical models is noted as critical to estimating current and future carbon stocks and fluxes. The long history of optical remote sensing combined with emerging active remote sensing technologies, such as lidar, provide powerful tools to study forest disturbance and recovery. This research is utilizing Landsat time-series data run through the Vegetation Change Tracker (VCT), and the Ecosystem Demography model (ED) in conjunction with lidar, and regional forest inventories to study disturbance impacts on vegetation structure and carbon over spatial and temporal gradients. The research is conducted in three regions of the United States; the Northeast, Southeast and Western US, representing different dominant mechanisms of forest disturbance ranging from land conversion, clear-cuts, wind damage, fire and pest outbreaks.

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  Global Change Impact & Vulnerability   (Tue 11:30 AM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Huang, Chengquan: Integration of long term Landsat observations with DESDynI measurements for monitoring terrestrial carbon flux within and beyond the DESDynI mission ...details
• Hurtt, George: Assimilating NAFD and GLAS data in the Ecosystem Demography (ED) model to investigate the role of regional forest disturbance and recovery dynamics on the carbon cycle ...details

Poster Location ID: 171