Translation to the New TCO Panel

Beverly LawProf. Global Change Forest ScienceScience Chair, AmeriFlux Network

Oregon State University

Protocols for Data Collection and Submission• Need:

– Uniform methods, standards for high quality observations

– Uniform database for global assessments

• Important standards/definitions:– Carbon stocks in vegetation and soil,

productivity, ecosystem & component fluxes

– Vegetation types– Land use

• Reference for other documents (ECV, GEO Carbon Report)

Office of Science

U.S. Department of Energy

Protocols

– Carbon stocks in forests, agricultural crops, shrublands• Live and dead wood in forests (revise – explicit estimates of biomass

mortality by species + metadata)• Understory vegetation in forests (specify biomass mortality)• Foliar, litter carbon• Soil carbon

– NPP– LAI– Ecosystem CO2 & water fluxes– Component fluxes (e.g. soil resp.)– Foliar, litter, soil C & N content– Relevant to land degradation

FLUXNET: A Global Network of Observation Sites500+ Sites, 10 Regional Networks, 45 Countries

Quantify and understand causes of variation in terrestrial exchange of carbon, water and energy with atmosphere

www.fluxdata.org

FLUXNET: Global Terrestrial Flux Observations• Carbon/water/energy fluxes• Meteorology, soil and plant variables• Multiple biomes and disturbances in a broad range of climate• Standardized database, shared protocols (Law et al. FAO 2008)

Transitional activities

– Contribute to:• Clarification of roles of programs to reduce redundancy• Ensuring coherence of products, terminology, methods,

and standards• Process for feedback among programs and with

research developments

– Incorporate land degradation – relevant to carbon– GEO Carbon Report

Proposed future activities– Interactions among programs– Update FAO field and data submission protocols

• Ecosystem variables relevant to terrestrial carbon, including land degradation

• Fill existing gaps (e.g. methods for tropical forests)• Broad agreement

– Recommendations for operational systems (depending on resources)

• Optimize location and number of in situ observations• Land degradation, deforestation, desertification, drought effects

Moderate Resolution Remote SensingDeforestation

(Huang et al. 2009)GOFC-GOLD Recommendations

Moderate Resolution Remote Sensing Desertification

GEO Integrated Global Carbon Observations

– Provide long-term observations required to improve the understanding of the current state and future behavior of the global carbon cycle

– Monitor and assess the effectiveness of carbon sequestration and/or emission reduction activities on global atmospheric CO2 levels

Integrated Global Carbon Observations: Essential Elements (GEO Carbon Report)

• Terrestrial ecosystem flux observations (CO2, water vapor, heat fluxes)

• Ocean and atmosphere in situ measurements• Inventories• Global satellite data• Models to integrate these observations for

spatial maps of carbon stocks and fluxes• Operational system for policy relevant carbon

information

Issues

• Continuity of and gaps in existing carbon observation systems– Landsat Data Continuity Mission starts 2012 (2 yr gap 2010-2012)– Terrestrial flux regional networks– Spatial & temporal continuity of soil carbon monitoring, methods used– Carbon variables missing in current inventories

• Communicate operational observation needs• Incorporating new methods of measurement/analysis/integration

LCDM sensor

(Kennedy et al., OSU)

LandTrendr: Landsat-based Detection of Trends in Disturbance and Recovery

Extract spectral trajectories for pixels

Prepare stack of yearly imagery

Extract summary information from

segments

Statistically identify and fit segments with consistent trends

Steps in the LandTrendr process

Evaluate veracity of selected events

Integration for Regional Mapping of Terrestrial Carbon

Maps of Terrestrial Carbon Stocks and Fluxes

Terrestrial Carbon Modeling

InventoriesCarbon Stocks

SO

UR

CE

S

Biosphere CO2 Flux Observations

SIN

KS

Spatial data:Land-use, land cover,meteorologyUnderstanding

of terrestrial carbon processes

(Law et al. 2006)

Terrestrial carbon model

Atmospheric Transport model

Climate and weatherfields

Ecological studies

Biomasssoil carbon inventories

Remote sensing Atmospheric CO2

Remote sensing of Vegetation propertiesGrowthLand cover /useFiresBiomassRadiation

Georeferencedemissionsinventories

Atmosphericmeasurements

Eddy-covarianceflux towers

Data assimilation

Ocean carbon model

Ocean remote sensingOcean colorAltimetryWindsSSTSSS

Ocean time seriesBiogeochemical

pCO2

Surface observationpCO2

nutrients

Water column inventories

rivers

Lateral fluxesCoastal studies

optimizedFluxes

optimizedmodel

parameters