Markedly divergent estimates of Amazon forest carbon density from ground plots and satellites.

ABSTRACT:

Aim

The accurate mapping of forest carbon stocks is essential for understanding the global carbon cycle, for assessing emissions from deforestation, and for rational land-use planning. Remote sensing (RS) is currently the key tool for this purpose, but RS does not estimate vegetation biomass directly, and thus may miss significant spatial variations in forest structure. We test the stated accuracy of pantropical carbon maps using a large independent field dataset.

Location

Tropical forests of the Amazon basin. The permanent archive of the field plot data can be accessed at: http://dx.doi.org/10.5521/FORESTPLOTS.NET/2014_1.

Methods

Two recent pantropical RS maps of vegetation carbon are compared to a unique ground-plot dataset, involving tree measurements in 413 large

SUBMITTER: Mitchard ET 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4579864 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature