Introduction
Biomass
plays two major roles in the climate system: a) photosynthesis
withdraws CO2 from the atmosphere
and stores it as biomass; and b) quantity of biomass consumed
by fire affects emissions of CO2 and
of other trace gases and aerosols. Estimates of biomass
change (due to land use and management practices or to natural
processes) provide a direct measurement of carbon sequestration
or loss and can help to validate carbon-cycle models.
Historic
background
Biomass
was identified as a terrestrial essential climatic variable
in the original GCOS implementation plan and adequacy reports.
Requirements
and the status of the biomass ECV already submitted to the
UNFCCC is summarized in this
document 42kb,
v01, 20 April 2007
ECV
biomass standards report
As requested
by UNFCCC SBSTA/COP for its 23rd Session in Montreal, November
2005, GTOS is undertaking the assessment of the status of
the development of standards for each of the essential climate
variables in the terrestrial domain. The following report,
documentation and other material have been compiled for
biomass. We very much welcome your comments and inputs in
improving and completing the analysis for biomass. Please
send any material and comments to the GTOS
Secretariat.
References
Listed
below are the major references that have been identified
in regards to methodology and standards for biomass. Please
inform us if you are aware of any other documentation or
material which could be considered.
Askne,
J., Santoro, M., Smith, G., and Fransson, J.E.S. 2003. Multitemporal
repeat-pass SAR interferometry of boreal forests. IEEE Transactions
on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 41: 1540-1550. ECV-T12-biomass-ref11
Australian
Greenhouse Office. 1999. National Carbon Accounting System,
Methods for Estimating Woody Biomass. Technical Report No.
3, Commonwealth of Australia. ECV-T12-biomass-ref05
FAO.
2001. Terrestrial Carbon Observation: The Rio de Janeiro
recommendations for terrestrial and atmospheric measurements.
Environment and Natural Resources Series, No. 3. Rome. ECV-T12-biomass-ref06
FAO.
2005. Land Cover Classification System: Classification concepts
and user manual. Environment and Natural Resources Series,
No. 8. Rome.
ECV-T12-biomass-ref07
FAO.
2006. Global forest resources assessment 2005: progress
towards sustainable forest management. FAO Forestry Paper
147. FAO, Rome. ECV-T12-biomass-ref20
Fransson,
J.E.S., Walter, F., and Ulander, L.M.H. 2000. Estimation
of forest parameters using VHF SAR data. IEEE Transactions
on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 38: 720-727. ECV-T12-biomass-ref17
GCOS.
2003. The Second Report on Adequacy of Global Observation
Systems for Climate in Support of the UNFCCC. Global Climate
Observing System, Report GCOS - 82. ECV-T12-biomass-ref04
GCOS.
2006. Systematic observation requirements for satellite-
based products for climate. Supplemental details to the
satellite-based component of the “Implementation Plan
for the Global Observing System for Climate in Support of
the UNFCCC”, Report GCOS-107 (WMO/TD No. 1338), September
2006. 90p. ECV-T12-biomass-ref03
Graetz,
R.D. 1998. The Terrestrial Carbon Pools of the Australian
Continent: an Assessment of their Size, Dynamics, and Tractability.
Unpubl. Report to National Greenhouse Gas Inventory, Environment
Australia, Canberra. 245 p.
Heiskanen,
J. 2006. Estimated aboveground tree biomass and leaf area
index in a mountain birch forest using ASTER satellite data.
International Journal of Remote Sensing 27: 1135-1158. ECV-T12-biomass-ref18
IGOS.
2004. Integrated Global Carbon Observation System. Implementation
Plan. Draft 1.0. ECV-T12-biomass-ref02
IGCOS.
2004. Integrated Global Carbon Observation Theme: A Strategy
to Realise a Coordinated System of Integrated Global Carbon
Cycle Observations.
ECV-T12-biomass-ref19
Israelsson,
H., Ulander, L. M. H., Askne, J. I. H., Fransson, J. E.
S., Frolind, P. O., Gustavsson, A., and Hellsten, H. 1997.
Retrieval of forest stem volume using VHF SAR. IEEE Transactions
on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 35: 36-40.
ECV-T12-biomass-ref12
Kurvonen,
L., Pulliainen, J., and Hallikainen, M. 1999. Retrieval
of biomass in boreal forests from multitemporal ERS-1 and
JERS-1 SAR images. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote
Sensing 37: 198-205. ECV-T12-biomass-ref13
Santoro,
M., Askne, J., Smith, G., and Fransson, J.E.S. 2002. Stem
volume retrieval in boreal forests with ERS-1/2 interferometry.
Remote Sensing of Environment 81: 19-35. ECV-T12-biomass-ref14
Santoro,
M., Eriksson, L., Askne, J., and Schmullius, C. 2006. Assessment
of stand-wise stem volume retrieval in boreal forest from
JERS-1 L-band SAR backscatter. International Journal of
Remote Sensing 27: 3425-3454. ECV-T12-biomass-ref15
Terrestrial
Ecosystems Monitoring Sites (TEMS)
Wagner,
W., Luckman, A., Vietmeier, J., Tansey, K., Baltzter, H.,
Schmullius, C., Davidson, M., Gaveau, D., Gluck, M., Le
Toan, T., Quegan, S., Shvidenko, A., Wiesmann, A., and Yu,
J. J. 2003. Large-scale mapping of boreal forest in SIBERIA
using ERS tandem coherence and JERS backscatter data. Remote
Sensing of Environment 85: 125-144. ECV-T12-biomass-ref16
Zianis,
D., Muukkonen, P., Mäkipää, R. & Mencuccini,
M. 2005. Biomass
and stem volume equations for tree species in Europe. Silva
Fennica
Monographs 4: 1-63.
Somogyi, Z., Cienciala, E., Mäkipää,
R., Lehtonen, A., Muukkonen, P. &
Weiss, P. 2007. Indirect methods of large-scale forest biomass
estimation. European Journal of Forest Research 126(2):
197-207.
Wirth, C., Schumacher, J. & Schulze,
E.D. 2004. Generic biomass
functions for Norway spruce in Central Europe - a meta-analysis
approach
towards prediction and uncertainty estimation. Tree Physiology
24: 121-139.
Lehtonen, A. 2005. Estimating foliage biomass
for Scots pine (Pinus
sylvestris L.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.)
plots. Tree
Physiology 25(7): 803-811.
Lehtonen, A., Mäkipää, R.,
Heikkinen, J., Sievänen, R. & Liski, J. 2004.
Biomass expansion factors (BEF) for Scots pine, Norway spruce
and birch
according to stand age for boreal forests. Forest Ecology
and Management
188: 211-224.
Lehtonen, A., Cienciala, E., Tatarinov,
F. & Mäkipää, R. 2007.
Uncertainty estimation of biomass expansion factors for
Norway spruce in
the Czech Republic. Annals of Forest Science 64(2): 133-140.
Muukkonen, P. & Mäkipää,
R. 2006. Biomass equations for European trees:
Addendum. Silva Fennica 40: 763-773.
Marklund, L.G. 1988. Biomassafunktioner
för tall, gran och björk i
Sverige. Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet, Rapporter-Skog 45:
1-73.
Löwe, H., Seufert, G. & Raes, F.
2000. Comparison of methods used within
member states for estimating CO2 emissions and sinks according
to UNFCCC
and EU monitoring mechanism: forest and other wooded land.
Biotechnology, Agronomy, Society and Environment 4: 315-319.
Relevant
Web links
Listed
below are relevant links to biomass measurements. New links
are welcome.
