estimates of burned biomass based on burned areas from spot-vegetation in 2000

Estimates of burned biomass based on burned areas from SPOT-VEGETATION in 2000

Akinori Ito Joyce E. Penner

University of Michigan

Summary of data set used in the estimation of burned biomass

Data set Spatial Resolution MethodArea burned (Grégoire et al., 2002.) 1-km globe SPOT-VEGETATION

Fractional forest cover (Zhu and Waller, 2001) 1-km globe AVHRRFractional vegetation cover (Zeng et al., 2000) 1-km globe AVHRRVegetation map (Hansen et al., 2000) 1-km globe AVHRR

Carbon pool of forests (Myneni et al., 2001) 8-km NH(>30˚N) AVHRRAbove-ground biomass density of forests (Gaston et al., 1998) 5-km Africa GIS modelBiomass density (Barrette and Xu, 2002) 5-km Australia GIS modelLitter biomass density of forests(Matthews, 1997) 0.1˚ globe Measurement dataBiomass density of grassland Global average Measurement data(Shea et al., 1999, Hoffa et al., 1999, Gill et al., 2001) (42 sites)

Combustion factor (see Table 1) Global average Measurement data

Emission factor (Andreae and Merlet, 2001) Global average Measurement data

Amount of biomass burned (M)

M = A x B x ce

A: monthly area burnedB: annual average aboveground biomass densityce: average combustion factor , the fraction of above

ground biomass that is burned

Estimate of biomass burned

Table 1 Combustion factor

Reference grass forests stem & CWD leaf & fine litterCarvalho et al. (2001) 0.33 0.26 0.92Shea et al. (1996) 0.99 0.91Araujo et al. (1999) 0.20 0.13 0.83Carvalho et al. (1998) 0.20 0.14 0.88Fearnside et al. (2001) 0.30 0.26Guid et al. (1998) 0.51 0.47 0.95Graca et al. (1999) 0.36 0.29 0.96Fearnside et al. (1993) 0.29 0.26 1.00Fearnside et al. (1999) 0.43 0.32 0.97Average 0.99 0.33 0.27 0.93

*: CWD means coarse woody debris.

*

1.1.1. Classification method in North America

Area burned in grassland

Living biomass density of forests

Biomass density (tons / ha)

Burned area (x 102 ha)Litter biomass density of forests

Area burned in forests

Global average of biomass density of grassland

2.791 (tons / ha)


Burned area (x 102 ha)

(Forest area: evergreen needleleaf, evergreen broadleaf, deciduous needleleaf, deciduous broadleaf, mixed, woody savanna)

(Grassland area) = (Fractional vegetation cover) - (Fractional forest cover)

(Living biomass: stem, bark, branches, and twigs, and leaves)

(Litter: fine litter and coarse woody debris)

Combustion factor of forests:

0.33

Combustion factor of grassland:0.99

1.1.2. Classification method in Eurasia




Burned area (x 102 ha)Litter biomass density of forests



2.791 (tons / ha)



(Forest area burned) = (Area burned) x (Forest map: evergreen needleleaf, evergreen broadleaf, deciduous needleleaf, deciduous broadleaf, mixed, woody savanna)

(Grassland area burned) = (Area burned) x{(Fractional vegetation cover) - (Fractional forest cover)}

(Living biomass: stem, bark, branches, and twigs, and leaves)

(Litter: fine litter and coarse woody debris)


0.33

Combustion factor of grassland:0.99

(Grassland area burned) = (Area burned) x{(Fractional vegetation cover) - (Fractional forest cover)}


0.33




Litter biomass density of forests



2.791 (tons / ha)



1.2.1. Continuous field method in Africa

Only grassland burned for

the second fire.

(Forest area burned) = (Area burned) x(Fractional forest cover)

Combustion factor of

grassland:0.99


1.2.2. Continuous field method in Australia

Area burned

Biomass C density (tons C / ha)

Leaf + fine litterbiomass density

Stem + woody debrisbiomass density

Fractional vegetation cover (%)

Actual area burned


Combustion factor of leaf & fine litter:

0.93

Combustion factor of stem & CWD:

0.27

2.1. Results of biomass burned (Tg / yr)

Africa Australia Extratropical regionThis work 2572 374 649Barbosa et al. (1999) 704-2168Hao and Liu (1994) 2290 290Hao et al. (1990) 2818 425Lobert et al. (1999) 640Lavoué et al., (2000) 66-700

2.2. Results of emissions (Tg species / yr)

Africa Australia Extratropical regionCO 254.46 34.50 63.94NO2 4.88 0.86 2.06

BC 1.64 0.23 0.35Smoke (TPM - BC) 15.68 2.41 9.85

2.3. Results of emissions from biomass burned

January biomass burned (kg) February biomass burned (kg)

April biomass burned (kg) Jun biomass burned (kg)May biomass burned (kg)

March biomass burned (kg)

2.4. Results of emissions from biomass burned

July biomass burned (kg) August biomass burned (kg)

October biomass burned (kg) December biomass burned (kg)November biomass burned (kg)

September biomass burned (kg)

4. Future work

Update biomass burned in tropical America and Asia

Complete photochemistry model using meteorology from GEOS-DAS in 2000

Compare predicted fields (CO, BC, etc) with observations

3. Conclusions

1. These methods appear to give reasonable results for total biomass burned.

2. In Northern Hemisphere, the estimated litter burned seems too high, while

the living biomass looks low.

3. Need to test the emissions in a model and develop uncertainty estimates.

References

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estimates of burned biomass based on burned areas from spot-vegetation in 2000

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