scholarly journals Modelling above-ground carbon dynamics using multi-temporal airborne lidar: insights from a Mediterranean woodland

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 14739-14772 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Simonson ◽  
P. Ruiz-Benito ◽  
F. Valladares ◽  
D. Coomes
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Carbon Fluxes ◽  
Carbon Dynamics ◽  
National Forest Inventory ◽  
Airborne Lidar ◽  
Fire Occurrence ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Multi Temporal

Abstract. Woodlands represent highly significant carbon sinks globally, though could lose this function under future climatic change. Effective large-scale monitoring of these woodlands has a critical role to play in mitigating for, and adapting to, climate change. Mediterranean woodlands have low carbon densities, but represent important global carbon stocks due to their extensiveness and are particularly vulnerable because the region is predicted to become much hotter and drier over the coming century. Airborne lidar is already recognized as an excellent approach for high-fidelity carbon mapping, but few studies have used multi-temporal lidar surveys to measure carbon fluxes in forests and none have worked with Mediterranean woodlands. We use a multi-temporal (five year interval) airborne lidar dataset for a region of central Spain to estimate above-ground biomass (AGB) and carbon dynamics in typical mixed broadleaved/coniferous Mediterranean woodlands. Field calibration of the lidar data enabled the generation of grid-based maps of AGB for 2006 and 2011, and the resulting AGB change were estimated. There was a close agreement between the lidar-based AGB growth estimate (1.22 Mg ha−1 year−1) and those derived from two independent sources: the Spanish National Forest Inventory, and a~tree-ring based analysis (1.19 and 1.13 Mg ha−1 year−1, respectively). We parameterised a simple simulator of forest dynamics using the lidar carbon flux measurements, and used it to explore four scenarios of fire occurrence. Under undisturbed conditions (no fire occurrence) an accelerating accumulation of biomass and carbon is evident over the next 100 years with an average carbon sequestration rate of 1.95 Mg C ha−1 year−1. This rate reduces by almost a third when fire probability is increased to 0.01, as has been predicted under climate change. Our work shows the power of multi-temporal lidar surveying to map woodland carbon fluxes and provide parameters for carbon dynamics models. Space deployment of lidar instruments in the near future could open the way for rolling out wide-scale forest carbon stock monitoring to inform management and governance responses to future environmental change.

scholarly journals Modelling above-ground carbon dynamics using multi-temporal airborne lidar: insights from a Mediterranean woodland

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 961-973 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Simonson ◽  
P. Ruiz-Benito ◽  
F. Valladares ◽  
D. Coomes
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Carbon Fluxes ◽  
Carbon Dynamics ◽  
Airborne Lidar ◽  
Lidar Data ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Multi Temporal

Abstract. Woodlands represent highly significant carbon sinks globally, though could lose this function under future climatic change. Effective large-scale monitoring of these woodlands has a critical role to play in mitigating for, and adapting to, climate change. Mediterranean woodlands have low carbon densities, but represent important global carbon stocks due to their extensiveness and are particularly vulnerable because the region is predicted to become much hotter and drier over the coming century. Airborne lidar is already recognized as an excellent approach for high-fidelity carbon mapping, but few studies have used multi-temporal lidar surveys to measure carbon fluxes in forests and none have worked with Mediterranean woodlands. We use a multi-temporal (5-year interval) airborne lidar data set for a region of central Spain to estimate above-ground biomass (AGB) and carbon dynamics in typical mixed broadleaved and/or coniferous Mediterranean woodlands. Field calibration of the lidar data enabled the generation of grid-based maps of AGB for 2006 and 2011, and the resulting AGB change was estimated. There was a close agreement between the lidar-based AGB growth estimate (1.22 Mg ha−1 yr−1) and those derived from two independent sources: the Spanish National Forest Inventory, and a tree-ring based analysis (1.19 and 1.13 Mg ha−1 yr−1, respectively). We parameterised a simple simulator of forest dynamics using the lidar carbon flux measurements, and used it to explore four scenarios of fire occurrence. Under undisturbed conditions (no fire) an accelerating accumulation of biomass and carbon is evident over the next 100 years with an average carbon sequestration rate of 1.95 Mg C ha−1 yr−1. This rate reduces by almost a third when fire probability is increased to 0.01 (fire return rate of 100 years), as has been predicted under climate change. Our work shows the power of multi-temporal lidar surveying to map woodland carbon fluxes and provide parameters for carbon dynamics models. Space deployment of lidar instruments in the near future could open the way for rolling out wide-scale forest carbon stock monitoring to inform management and governance responses to future environmental change.

Transitioning to Low Carbon Mobility

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie Hopkins ◽  
James Higham
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Substantial Contribution ◽  
Transport Sector ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
The World ◽  
Environmental Transformation ◽  
Context Specific

Since the turn of the 21st Century, the world has experienced unprecedented economic, political, social and environmental transformation. The ‘inconvenient truth’ of climate change is now undeniable; rising temperatures and the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme events have resulted in the loss of lives, livelihoods and habitats as well as straining economies. Increasingly mobile lives are often dependent on high carbon modes of transport, representing a substantial contribution to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the underlying cause of anthropogenic climate change. With growing demand and rising emissions, the transport sector has a critical role to play in achieving GHG emissions reductions, and stabilising the global climate. Low Carbon Mobility Transitions draws interdisciplinary insights on transport and mobilities, as a vast and complex socio-technical system. It presents 15 chapters and 6 shorter ‘case studies’ covering a diversity of themes and geographic contexts across three thematic sections: People and Place, Structures in Transition, and Innovations for Low Carbon Mobility. The three sections are highly interrelated, and with overlapping, complementing, and challenging themes. The contributions offer critical, often neglected insights into low carbon mobility transitions across the world. In doing so, Low Carbon Mobility Transitions sheds light on the place- and context-specific nature of mobility in a climate constrained world.

scholarly journals Monitoring tropical forest carbon stocks and emissions using Planet satellite data

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ovidiu Csillik ◽  
Pramukta Kumar ◽  
Joseph Mascaro ◽  
Tara O’Shea ◽  
Gregory P. Asner
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Carbon Stocks ◽  
Airborne Lidar ◽  
Aboveground Carbon ◽  
Lidar Measurements ◽  
High Resolution Map ◽  
Aboveground Carbon Density ◽  
Planet Satellite

AbstractTropical forests are crucial for mitigating climate change, but many forests continue to be driven from carbon sinks to sources through human activities. To support more sustainable forest uses, we need to measure and monitor carbon stocks and emissions at high spatial and temporal resolution. We developed the first large-scale very high-resolution map of aboveground carbon stocks and emissions for the country of Peru by combining 6.7 million hectares of airborne LiDAR measurements of top-of-canopy height with thousands of Planet Dove satellite images into a random forest machine learning regression workflow, obtaining an R2 of 0.70 and RMSE of 25.38 Mg C ha−1 for the nationwide estimation of aboveground carbon density (ACD). The diverse ecosystems of Peru harbor 6.928 Pg C, of which only 2.9 Pg C are found in protected areas or their buffers. We found significant carbon emissions between 2012 and 2017 in areas aggressively affected by oil palm and cacao plantations, agricultural and urban expansions or illegal gold mining. Creating such a cost-effective and spatially explicit indicators of aboveground carbon stocks and emissions for tropical countries will serve as a transformative tool to quantify the climate change mitigation services that forests provide.

scholarly journals Climate-driven enrichment of pollutants in peatlands

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 905-911 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Martínez Cortizas ◽  
H. Biester ◽  
T. Mighall ◽  
R. Bindler
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Carbon Dynamics ◽  
Aquatic Systems ◽  
Element Concentrations ◽  
Present Trend ◽  
Carbon Release ◽  
Northern Peatlands ◽  
Global Carbon ◽  
Multiproxy Approach

Abstract. Peatlands play an important role for global carbon dynamics, acting as a sink or source depending on climate. Such changes imply a series of additional effects because peatlands are also an important reservoir of atmospherically derived pollutants. Using a multiproxy approach (non-pollen-palynomorphs, δ15N, C/N, Se, Br, I, Hg, Ti), we show a relationship between climate (wetter–drier) and peat decomposition, which affected element concentrations in a Spanish bog during the last 5500 years. Changes in superficial wetness played a critical role in the cycling of elements coupled to carbon dynamics. Dry phases caused increased peat mineralisation, resulting in a 2–3 times increase in concentrations of the analysed elements independent from atmospheric fluxes. Under the present trend of climate change large areas of northern peatlands are expected to be severely affected; in this context our findings indicate that the increase in carbon release, which leads to an enrichment of elements, may enhance the export of stored contaminants (Hg, organohalogens) to the aquatic systems or to the atmosphere.

scholarly journals Projected changes of alpine grassland carbon dynamics in response to climate change and elevated CO2concentrations under Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) scenarios

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengfei Han ◽  
Xiaohui Lin ◽  
Wen Zhang ◽  
Guocheng Wang
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Carbon Cycle ◽  
Carbon Budget ◽  
Carbon Fluxes ◽  
Carbon Dynamics ◽  
Alpine Grassland ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Rcp Scenarios ◽  
Representative Concentration Pathways

AbstractThe Tibetan Plateau is an important component of the global carbon cycle due to the large permafrost carbon pool and its vulnerability to climate warming. The Tibetan Plateau has experienced a noticeable warming over the past few decades and is projected to continue warming in the future. However, the direction and magnitude of carbon fluxes responses to climate change and elevated CO2concentration under Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) scenarios in the Tibetan Plateau grassland are poorly known. Here, we used a calibrated and validated biogeochemistry model, CENTURY, to quantify the contributions of climate change and elevated CO2on the future carbon budget in the alpine grassland under three RCP scenarios. Though the Tibetan Plateau grassland was projected a net carbon sink of 16 ~ 25 Tg C yr-1in the 21st century, the capacity of carbon sequestration was predicted to decrease gradually because climate-driven increases in heterotrophic respiration (Rh) (with linear slopes 0.49 ~ 1.62 g C m-2yr-1) was greater than the net primary production (NPP) (0.35 ~ 1.52 g C m-2yr-1). However, the elevated CO2contributed more to plant growth (1.9% ~ 7.3%) than decomposition (1.7% ~ 6.1%), which could offset the warming-induced carbon loss. The interannual and decadal-scale dynamics of the carbon fluxes in the alpine grassland were primarily controlled by temperature, while the role of precipitation became increasingly important in modulating carbon cycle. The strengthened correlation between precipitation and carbon budget suggested that further research should consider the performance of precipitation in evaluating carbon dynamics in a warmer climate scenario.

Energy and Climate

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael B. McElroy
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Heat Content ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Rate Of Increase ◽  
The Us ◽  
Scientific Fact

The climate of our planet is changing at a rate unprecedented in recent human history. The energy absorbed from the sun exceeds what is returned to space. The planet as a whole is gaining energy. The heat content of the ocean is increasing; the surface and atmosphere are warming; mid-latitude glaciers are melting; sea level is rising. The Arctic Ocean is losing its ice cover. None of these assertions are based on theory but on hard scientific fact. Given the science-heavy nature of climate change, debates and discussions have not played as big a role in the public sphere as they should, and instead are relegated to often misinformed political discussions and inaccessible scientific conferences. Michael B. McElroy, an eminent Harvard scholar of environmental studies, combines both his research chops and pedagogical expertise to present a book that will appeal to the lay reader but still be grounded in scientific fact. In Energy and Climate: Vision for the Future, McElroy provides a broad and comprehensive introduction to the issue of energy and climate change intended to be accessible for the general reader. The book includes chapters on energy basics, a discussion of the contemporary energy systems of the US and China, and two chapters that engage the debate regarding climate change. The perspective is global but with a specific focus on the US and China recognizing the critical role these countries must play in addressing the challenge of global climate change. The book concludes with a discussion of initiatives now underway to at least reduce the rate of increase of greenhouse gas emissions, together with a vision for a low carbon energy future that could in principle minimize the long-term impact of energy systems on global climate.

Cirrus, Climate, and Global Change

Cirrus ◽  
2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graeme Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Cirrus Clouds ◽  
Coupled Processes ◽  
Cloud Droplets ◽  
Earth’S Climate ◽  
Climate Problem ◽  
The Way

Understanding the climate of Earth and the way climate varies in time requires a quantitative understanding of the way water cycles back and forth between the atmosphere and at the Earth's surface. The exchanges of water between the surface and atmosphere establish the hydrological cycle, and it is the influence of this cycle on the energy budget of Earth that is central not only to understanding present climate but also to the prediction of climate change. Processes relating to the smallest of the reservoirs of water—namely, the atmospheric branch of the hydrological cycle—play an especially critical role in climate change. Water in vapor phase is the critical greenhouse gas (e.g., Chahine 1992) providing much studied feedbacks on climate forcing (Lindzen 1990; Rind et al. 1991; Stephens and Greenwald 1991; Inamdar and Ramanathan 1998; Hall and Manabe 1999). Water in the form of condensed, precipitation-sized particles is an important source of energy fueling circulation systems and is the fundamental supply of fresh water to life on Earth. Liquid water cloud droplets significantly modulate the radiative budget of the planet (e.g., Wielicki et al. 1995). Water that exists as ice particles suspended in the atmosphere is perhaps the smallest of the water reservoirs of the atmosphere, yet these ice crystals when distributed as part of large-scale cirrus clouds exert a disproportionate influence on the energy and water budgets of the planet. This chapter briefly speculates on the important ways cirrus clouds affect the Earth's climate. The topics discussed are central to what is referred to as the cloud-climate problem, which might be schematically represented in terms of the coupled processes represented in figure 20.1. The two most critical scientific questions associated with the cloud-climate problem are also stated in figure 20.1. Answers to these questions require a clearer understanding of how the large-scale circulation of the atmosphere governs cloud formation and evolution, how these clouds heat and moisten the atmosphere, and how this heating and moistening effect in turn feeds back to influence the dynamical and thermodynamical properties of the atmosphere.

scholarly journals Climate change mitigation potential of carbon capture and utilization in the chemical industry

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (23) ◽  
pp. 11187-11194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arne Kätelhön ◽  
Raoul Meys ◽  
Sarah Deutz ◽  
Sangwon Suh ◽  
André Bardow
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Capture ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Oil Consumption ◽  
Chemical Production ◽  
Carbon Capture And Utilization ◽  
Change Mitigation

Chemical production is set to become the single largest driver of global oil consumption by 2030. To reduce oil consumption and resulting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, carbon dioxide can be captured from stacks or air and utilized as alternative carbon source for chemicals. Here, we show that carbon capture and utilization (CCU) has the technical potential to decouple chemical production from fossil resources, reducing annual GHG emissions by up to 3.5 Gt CO2-eq in 2030. Exploiting this potential, however, requires more than 18.1 PWh of low-carbon electricity, corresponding to 55% of the projected global electricity production in 2030. Most large-scale CCU technologies are found to be less efficient in reducing GHG emissions per unit low-carbon electricity when benchmarked to power-to-X efficiencies reported for other large-scale applications including electro-mobility (e-mobility) and heat pumps. Once and where these other demands are satisfied, CCU in the chemical industry could efficiently contribute to climate change mitigation.

scholarly journals Climate-driven enrichment of pollutants in peatlands

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 2095-2109 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Martínez Cortizas ◽  
H. Biester ◽  
T. Mighall ◽  
R. Bindler
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Carbon Dynamics ◽  
Aquatic Systems ◽  
Element Concentrations ◽  
Present Trend ◽  
Carbon Release ◽  
Northern Peatlands ◽  
Global Carbon ◽  
Multiproxy Approach

Abstract. Peatlands play an important role for global carbon dynamics, acting as a sink or source depending on climate. Such changes imply a series of additional effects because peatlands are also an important reservoir of atmospherically derived pollutants. Using a multiproxy approach (non-pollen-palynomorphs, δ15N, C/N, Se, Br, I, Hg, Ti), we show a relationship between climate (wetter-drier) and peat decomposition, which affected element concentrations in a Spanish bog during the last 5500 years. Changes in superficial wetness played a critical role in the cycling of elements coupled to carbon dynamics. Dry phases caused increased peat mineralisation, resulting in a 2–3 times increase in concentrations of the analysed elements independent from atmospheric fluxes. Under the present trend of climate change large areas of northern peatlands are expected to be severely affected; in this context our findings indicate that the increase in carbon release, which leads to an enrichment of elements, may enhance the export of stored contaminants (Hg, organohalogens) to the aquatic systems or to the atmosphere.

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