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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
Human and environmental controls over aboveground carbon storage in Madagascar
Carbon Balance and Management, Volume 7, Article 2, Year 2012
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Description
Background: Accurate, high-resolution mapping of aboveground carbon density (ACD, Mg C ha-1) could provide insight into human and environmental controls over ecosystem state and functioning, and could support conservation and climate policy development. However, mapping ACD has proven challenging, particularly in spatially complex regions harboring a mosaic of land use activities, or in remote montane areas that are difficult to access and poorly understood ecologically. Using a combination of field measurements, airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and satellite data, we present the first large-scale, high-resolution estimates of aboveground carbon stocks in Madagascar.Results: We found that elevation and the fraction of photosynthetic vegetation (PV) cover, analyzed throughout forests of widely varying structure and condition, account for 27-67% of the spatial variation in ACD. This finding facilitated spatial extrapolation of LiDAR-based carbon estimates to a total of 2,372,680 ha using satellite data. Remote, humid sub-montane forests harbored the highest carbon densities, while ACD was suppressed in dry spiny forests and in montane humid ecosystems, as well as in most lowland areas with heightened human activity. Independent of human activity, aboveground carbon stocks were subject to strong physiographic controls expressed through variation in tropical forest canopy structure measured using airborne LiDAR.Conclusions: High-resolution mapping of carbon stocks is possible in remote regions, with or without human activity, and thus carbon monitoring can be brought to highly endangered Malagasy forests as a climate-change mitigation and biological conservation strategy. © 2012 Asner et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
Available Materials
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC3278681/bin/1750-0680-7-2-S1.DOCX
Authors & Co-Authors
Asner, Gregory P.
United States, Washington, D.c.
Carnegie Institution of Washington
Clark, John K.
United States, Washington, D.c.
Carnegie Institution of Washington
Mascaro, Joseph
United States, Washington, D.c.
Carnegie Institution of Washington
Vaudry, Romuald
France, Paris
Goodplanet Foundation
Chadwick, K. Dana
United States, Washington, D.c.
Carnegie Institution of Washington
Vieilledent, Ghislain
France, Paris
Cirad
Rasamoelina, Maminiaina
Madagascar, Antananarivo
Wwf Antananarivo
Balaji, Aravindh
United States, Washington, D.c.
Carnegie Institution of Washington
Kennedy-Bowdoin, Ty
United States, Washington, D.c.
Carnegie Institution of Washington
Maatoug, Léna
United States, Washington, D.c.
Carnegie Institution of Washington
Colgan, Matthew S.
United States, Washington, D.c.
Carnegie Institution of Washington
Knapp, David E.
United States, Washington, D.c.
Carnegie Institution of Washington
Statistics
Citations: 69
Authors: 12
Affiliations: 4
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1186/1750-0680-7-2
Research Areas
Environmental
Health System And Policy
Study Locations
Madagascar