High-Accuracy Carbon Mapping in Hawaii Yields Surprising Results
A team of scientists combined field measurements, airborne Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR)–based observations, and satellite-based imagery to develop a 30-meter-resolution map carbon density for the Island of Hawaii. The work accounted for 40 vegetation types across the full one million-hectare expanse of the island. This high-resolution carbon mapping effort estimates a total of 28.3 million tons of carbon sequestered in the vegetation on the island, which is 56 percent lower than estimates by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
This high-resolution mapping technique comes at a time of heightened interest in forest carbon containment. The approach is a cost efficient means of close monitoring that goes beyond the standard sampling of forests in a specific region to instead offer a comprehensive carbon accounting across diverse environmental and forest conditions.
The researcher from Carnegie Institution for Science’s Department of Global Ecology and the USDA Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station (PSW)appears in an online issue of the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.
“This research demonstrates that ecosystem C stocks can be accurately assessed in highly variable environments across extensive geographic regions,” says Dr. R. Flint Hughes, a PSW research ecologist with the Ecosystem Function and Health Program, who co-authored the study. “We are very excited about the prospects of applying this new approach to other regions of the world to facilitate faster and more accurate forest C assessments. It is a true leap forward in understanding the state and dynamics of the world’s forests.”
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