Forest cover and aboveground carbon loss in natural and managed tropical forests in 2000-2012

Alexandra Tyukavina, University of Maryland, atyukav@umd.edu (Presenter)
Alessandro Baccini, Woods Hole Research Center, abaccini@whrc.org
Matthew Hansen, University of Maryland College Park, mhansen@umd.edu
Peter Potapov, University of Maryland, College Park, peter.potapov@hermes.geog.umd.edu
Stephen Stehman, SUNY College of Environ Sci & Forestry, svstehma@syr.edu
Richard A. Houghton, The Woods Hole Research Center, rhoughton@whrc.org
Alexander Krylov, University of Maryland, College Park, amkrylov@umd.edu
Svetlana Turubanova, University of Maryland, College Park, paleobase@gmail.com
Scott J. Goetz, Woods Hole Research Center, sgoetz@whrc.org

Tropical forest clearing is a significant source of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) (Houghton, 2013) leading to radiative forcing of climate change. Current estimates of tropical forest loss area and resulting carbon losses vary among the studies (Achard et al., 2014; Harris et al., 2012; Pan et al., 2011) due to the differences in definitions, methodologies and data inputs. Detailed global satellite-derived datasets, such as a 30-m forest cover loss map by Hansen et al. (2013) may be used to produce methodologically consistent and comparable carbon loss estimates for the entire tropical region. Because change area derived from maps is subject to bias due to classification error, good practice recommendations suggest estimating change area from a validation sample (GFOI, 2014; IPCC, 2006; Olofsson et al., 2014). In this study an unbiased estimate of forest loss area is produced from such a validation sample. Stratified random sampling was implemented with strata defined based on Landsat-derived tree canopy cover, height, intactness (Potapov et al., 2008) and forest cover loss (Hansen et al., 2013). Sample-based forest loss area estimates for each stratum are then related to GLAS-lidar derived forest biomass (Baccini et al., 2012) to produce final AGC loss estimates. Our sample-based results distinguish gross losses of AGC from natural forests (0.59 PgC/yr) and from managed forests (0.43 PgC/yr) including plantations, agroforestry systems and subsistence agriculture. Latin America accounts for 43% of gross AGC loss and 54% of natural forest AGC loss, with Brazil being the largest single contributor in both categories. We estimate gross tropical forest AGC loss account for 11%, and natural forest loss – for 6% of global year 2012 CO2 emissions. Considering recent land cover change trends, natural forest loss will likely form an increasingly smaller proportion of tropical forest GHG emissions and of global emissions as fossil fuel consumption increases, which has implications for the valuation of co-benefits in tropical forest conservation.

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  General Contributions   (Tue 4:35 PM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Hansen, Matt: Integrating MODIS, Landsat and GLAS in characterizing forest extent, structure and change ...details

Poster Location ID: 248