Forest inventory

Brown S, Gillespie A, Lugo A. Biomass estimation methods for tropical forests with applications to forest inventory data. Forest Science, 1989. 35(4) pp. 381-902. 

The most extensive land resource is the forest, covering 1/3 of the land mass. This is the foundation of the large forest industry in Canada an industry employing 1 million people, 300 000 directly and 700 000 indirectly, and providing almost 20 of the value of the export trade. Data from FAO (5) sources show the statistics of the major forest countries marked in order of their forest inventories. (6)... 

The floristic composition of floodplain forests is described by several forest inventories covering the complete Amazon basin. Detailed information is available from central Amazon forests in the vicinity of Manaus with inventories of about 17 ha of varzea forest from the Ilha de Marchantaria, Costa do Marrecao, and Costa do Barroso (Worbes 1983, 1986, Revilla 1991, Worbes et al. 1992, Klinge et al. 1995) and from igapo forests (Keel and Prance 1979, Revilla 1981, Worbes... 

Forest inventories Nearly nonexistent in the tropics 5-10 years Yes (age classes) High for hiomass variable for soil carhon... 

O2 and CO2 Inverse calculations CO2, AO2, O2 Forest inventories Land-use change... 

It is also possible that the accumulation of carbon below ground, not directly measured in forest inventories, was underestimated and thus might account for the difference in estimates. However, the few studies that have measured the accumulation of carbon in forest soils have consistently found soils to account for only a small fraction (5-15%) of measured ecosystem sinks (Gaudinski et al., 2000 Barford et al., 2001 Schlesinger and Lichter, 2001). Thus, despite the fact that the world s soils hold 2-3 times more carbon than biomass, there is no evidence, as of early 2000s, that they account for much of a terrestrial sink. 

The discrepancy between estimates obtained from forest inventories and inverse calculations might also be explained by differences in the dates of measurements. The northern sink of 2.1 PgC yr from Gurney et al. (—2.4 + 0.3 for riverine transport) is for 1992-1996 and would probably have been lower (and closer to the forest inventory-based estimate) if averaged over the entire decade (see other estimates in Prentice et al., 2001). Top-down measurements based on atmospheric data are sensitive to large year-to-year variations in the growth rate of CO2 concentrations. 

Both forest inventories and inverse calculations with atmospheric data show terrestrial ecosystems to be a significant carbon sink, while changes in... 

Thus, the two methods most powerful in constraining the northern net sink (inverse analyses and forest inventories) are weak or lacking in the tropics (Table 14), and the carbon balance of the tropics is less certain. 

Region Land-use change Forest inventory Sink from land-use change relative to inventoried sink... 

When flux measurements are corrected for calm conditions, the net carbon balance may be nearly neutral. One of the studies in an old-growth forest in the Tapajos National Forest, Para, Brazil, showed a small net CO2 source (Saleska et al., in press). The results in that forest were supported by measurements of biomass (forest inventory) (Rice et al., in press). Living trees were accumulating carbon, but the decay of downed wood released more, for a small net source. Both fluxes suggest that the stand was recovering from a disturbance several years earlier. 

Joos F., Prentice I. C., and House J. I. (2002) Growth enhancement due to global atmospheric change as predicted by terrestrial ecosystem models consistent with US forest inventory data. Global Change Biol. 8, 299-303. 

Goodale, C.L., Lajtha, K., Nadelhoffer, K.J., Boyer, E.W. and Jaworski, N.A. (2002). Forest nitrogen sinks in large eastern US watersheds Estimates from forest inventory and an ecosystem model. Biogeochemistry, 57, 239-266. 

Elfving, B., Tegnhammer, L., 1996. Trends of tree growth in Swedish forests 1953-1992 An analysis based on sample trees from the National Forest Inventory. Scand. For. Res. 11, 38-49. 

Table 2.60 shows a very rough assessment of the budget of forest carbon fluxes. The estimated net flux ( 1 Gt C yr i) suggests that the global forest is a sink for atmospheric CO2. However, this value, based on forest inventories, is only a fraction of the sinks inferred from atmospheric data and models, estimated to be 2.1 ( 0.8) Pg C yr" referred to the northern mid-latitudes and suggesting that more than... 

Table 2.60 Approximated global terrestrial carbon fluxes, based on forest inventories, in 10 g C yr (or Gt yr ) - release from ecosystems (harvesting and emission into atmosphere), + uptake by ecosystem (NEP - CO2 sequestration), + emission into the atmosphere (source) and - uptake from the atmosphere (sink).

The average growth of German forests is according to the second national forest inventory (BWT) 12.1 m per hectare and year. According to Mantau [28] in 2008 roundwood production in Germany amounted to 71.9 million m (see Table 4.5). 

Hicke, Jeffrey A., etal. Spatial Patterns of Forest Characteristics in the Western United States Derived from Inventories. Ecological Applications 17, no. 8 (2007) 2387-2402. Shows how continental-scale forest inventory can be combined with remote sensing and modeling to provide a history of management effects on carbon stocks. 

Lidar. Applications for lidar include surveying, forest inventorying, and mapping of power lines, structure and biomass, ice shelves, and open mine pits and stockpiles. Platforms can be helicopters, airplanes, semiautonomous aircraft, satellites, and terrestrial systems on tripods. Lidar can be combined with other data types, such as hyperspectral, to yield fused imagery for more comprehensive analyses of issues such as forest health. 

Alder, D. (1989). Natural forest increment, growth and yield. In J. L. G. Wong (Ed.), Ghana forest inventory project seminar proceedings (pp. 47-52). Accra Overseas Development Agency, Forestry Department. 

Lesinski, J.A. and Westman, L. (1987). Crown injury types in Norway spruce and their applicability for forest inventory. In, Acid rain scientific and technical advances, ed. R. Perry, R.M. Harrison, J.N.B. Bell and J.N. Lester, 657-662. Selper, London. 

A flurry of recent taxonomic initiatives, such as the Encyclopedia of life project and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, have exemplified one of the most crucial issues facing systematists today the question of how best to supply basic taxonomic information to those who need it most. This issue is of growing concern because the worldwide biodiversity crisis demands immediate conservation action based upon scientific evidence, which in turn relies upon accurate species-level identifications. This chapter describes a UK Darwin Initiative-funded project. Building capacity for forest inventory in the Republic of Congo, which aims to supply such information to stakeholders in the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville). 

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