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Title: CROSS-INDICATOR ANALYSIS: COMBINING SOIL AND DOWN WOODY MATERIAL INVENTORIES TO MONITOR CHANGES IN CARBON STORAGE AT THE REGIONAL SCALE

Author
item O Neill, Katherine
item WOODALL, CHRISTOPHER - USDA FOREST SERVICE
item AMACHER, MICHAEL - USDA FOREST SERVICE

Submitted to: Society of American Foresters
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/3/2003
Publication Date: 5/5/2004
Citation: O Neill, K.P., Woodall, C., Amacher, M. 2004. Cross-indicator analysis: Combining soil and down woody material inventories to monitor changes in carbon storage at the regional scale. In: Forest Science in Practice: Proceedings of the 2003 Society Of American Foresters National Convention, October 25-29, 2003, Buffalo, NY. p. 102-110.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Downed wood, the forest floor, and the upper soil horizons have all been identified as critical reservoirs for carbon in forest ecosystems. Periodic reporting on the contribution of these components of forest ecosystems to the global carbon budget is mandated under national and international agreements related to the Montreal Process for Sustainable Forest Management. However, historically, the high cost and logistical difficulty of sampling has limited data collection, and existing estimates are derived from models or extrapolation from individual research plots with little information on spatial variability. To address these limitations, the USDA Forest Service has recently incorporated monitoring of soil and downed wood variables into its national Forest Inventory and Analysis network. Data from the enhanced Forest Inventory and Analysis program (2000-2002) were combined with digital soil survey databases (NRCS STATSGO) to derive C estimates for downed wood, the forest floor, and the upper 20 cm of the mineral soil for seven states of the North Central region. Despite inherent differences in sampling and estimation designs, geospatial approaches were successful in integrating inventory data into a cohesive estimate of ground-level carbon storage. Carbon storage in both soils and downed wood generally increased in northern latitudes as a result of cooler temperatures and reduced decomposition rates. However, the current soil protocols may have underestimated carbon storage in organic-rich peatland soils and additional imputation techniques may be needed to assess carbon storage in these soils. Application of geospatial techniques to existing forest inventory data provides a mechanism for continuous monitoring of ecosystem carbon pools across all forested lands of the U.S. using nationally-standardized collection, preparation, and data distribution formats.