Status: Criterion 5

1
Status Criterion 5Maintenance of forest
contribution to global carbon cycles

• Linda S. Heath
• James E. Smith
• USDA Forest Service
• Northeastern Research Station
• Durham, NH, USA

Ken Skog (Indicator 28) USFS, FPL, Madison, WI
Technical Workshop on the Refinement of the MP
Criteria 5 Indicators, 5-6 April, 2005, Atlanta,
GA
2
Forest sector carbon pools and flows
Growth
decay
decay
Removals
STANDING DEAD
HARVESTED CARBON
BIOMASS Above and Below
Mortality
Recycling
Harvest residue
processing
Litterfall, Mortality
Treefall
burning
decay
DOWN DEAD WOOD
FOREST FLOOR
PRODUCTS
disposal
burning
Humification
ENERGY
burning
Decomposition
LANDFILLS
Land use change
Erosion
3
Indicators

• 26. Total forest ecosystem biomass and C pool,
  and if appropriate, by forest type, age class,
  and successional stages. (Stock)
• 27. Contribution of forest ecosystems to the
  total global C budget, including absorption and
  release of C. (Change in C flux)
• 28. Contribution of forest products to the global
  C budget.
• State Department Need to be consistent with
  UNFCCC estimates.

4
Basic relationships between indicators

• Ind. 26. Carbon stock Carbon/Area x Area
• Ind 27 Ind 26(time2)-Ind 26(time1)
• Ind 28f(Removals)(utilization rates)(decay rates)

5
Conterminous US Forest C pools (Mt), 1997, by
broad forest types and regeneration status
30,000
25,000
20,000
Carbon pool (Mt)
15,000
Aboveground
Belowground
10,000
Soil
5,000
0
N P N P N P
N P
Coniferous Broad- Mixture
Nonstocked/
leaved
Chaparral
NNatural regeneration, PPlantation
Indicator 26
6
Conterminous US Forest C, Inds 2627
7
Net C changes in harvested wood pools (Mt/yr) for
the US
Indicator 28
Includes net imports
8
National GHG reporting to UNFCCC

• Annual Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions and Sinks
  Inventories (1990-present)
• (US Environmental Protection Agency)
• - All sectors, we do forest estimates
• Every 5 years,
• summary
• national
• communication
• State Dept.

Public involvement
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US forest C stock change, 2003
12 of total U.S. CO2 emissions
DRAFT Smith and Heath for 2005 EPA GHG Inventory
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Conform to Everimproving International Reporting
Guidelines

• IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas
  Emissions and Sinks (1994-1996) Reference,
  Workbook, Reporting
• IPCC Good Practice Guidance for Land Use, Land
  Use Change and Forestry (2001-2003)
• IPCC Revision Guidelines (2004-2006) ? volumes.
  AFOLU Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use
• ? Nations need to be consistent with the
  methodology in the guidelines

11
Approach for current Crit 5 estimates

• Use Forest Inventory Analysis (FIA) inventory
  data coupled with a modeling approach.
• Data from 120,000 field plots, collected by the
  USDA FS Forest Inventory Analysis.
• Models include equations to convert tree
  measurements to carbon, equations to estimate
  non-tree carbon, to a complex modeling system to
  track projections of C
• Model tracks carbon through harvested wood
  products (Skog and Nicholson 1998)

12
Need to do better

• Units (that is, metric vs english vs mixed)
• Soil and belowground carbon
• Clear definitions of forest, forest mgmt
• Alaska, Hawaii, Territory coverage?
• Gross changes, not just net?
• Harvested wood
• Criteria to choose between estimates from
  different approaches?
• Noncarbon greenhouse gases

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Methods to determine estimates

• Field measurements with biometric eqns.
• Flux towers/Data fusion
• Models Ecological/ biogeographical/
  biogeochemical/biophysical
• Default IPCC approachperhaps default 1605b
  approach
• Uncertainty analysis
• Carbon in Harvested Wood Modelingimports/exports
  

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UNFCCC Reporting still evolving

• Consistency
• Moving toward full land representation (forest,
  cropland, grassland, wetland, settlement, other)
• Be able to report subcategories (nonforest
  becoming forest, forest remaining forest)
• Uncertainties required
• Key source analysis
• Transparency, verification, accuracy, precision,
  cost

15
Painted Hills, OR