Amazon Carbon Map Revolutionizes Sequestration Scheme: Big Pic

Sept. 6, 2010 -- A cutting-edge mapping technology could revolutionize our ability to track how much carbon is stored in the world's forests, according to a new study. The technique, which blends satellite imagery with laser scans of Earth's surface as well as ground-based measurements, will vastly improve international efforts to reward forest-rich countries for preserving their greenhouse gas-sucking trees.

The world's forests keep billions of tons of carbon locked away from the atmosphere. In an effort to encourage developing countries to preserve their climate-friendly resources, the United Nations is building the Collaborative Program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (UN-REDD). The program will use donations from developed nations to pay forested regions based on the amount of carbon they sequester.

But that carbon is distributed throughout plants and soil, and keeping track of it is tough. Now researchers led by Greg Asner of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. have come up with a new technique that accurately maps carbon stored in the landscape.

Above, an image from the team's experimental project in the Peruvian Amazon shows rich stores of carbon in primary forests in red. Secondary-growth forests show up in dark green, followed by active human development in light greens and yellow. Details of the study were published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

By expanding this process to forested regions around the world, the team hopes to provide high-resolution information on global forests' carbon reserves.

For example, researchers calculated that 395 million tons of are carbon stored in the 16,000 square mile area mapped for this pilot project, versus a previous estimate of 587 million tons. That may sound like bad news, but providing more accurate estimates of carbon storage should allow the UN-REDD program to grant more financial credit per ton than it otherwise could.

Image: Carnegie Institution for Science