1

CHARGE

The goal of the breakout groups is to

– define and prioritize research questions to help guide the US Global Change Research Program,

– determine the relative priorities of the research questions, and

– designate whether research priorities are sufficiently mature for short-term research or are more long-term in scope.

2

Breakout #2 Questions

What ecosystem observations are needed to improve our understanding of carbon on land?

What land-use observations are needed to improve our understanding of how carbon can be managed?

3

Breakout Notes

Session 2 Group 2 - What land-use observations are needed to improve our understanding of how carbon can be managed?

• How do we know what land management practices are being used in crop lands, forested lands, grazing lands? (High/Short)

• Responsible for management of land - extending outside the U.S. (e.g., Ethiopian govt owns all land) and transfer – land use change.

• Current vegetative coverage (including historical and future)

• Observations that allow deforestation rates and ability attribute cover change (look for different types, such as roads/industrial settlement) – a system that uses a in situ information of causes / drivers of land use change - social and economic (High/Short)• How do we know if the land is being managed sustainably?• Is there a different land use being used, and what is it?

4

Breakout Notes• Ecological site descriptions with state and transitional

framework

• Soil Survey – dynamic soil property inventories, range land health inventories

• Potential for Carbon Sequestration

• Missing land use management database – National land ownership database not available, farm service agency does have a land database, but restricted, NRI database also restricted, FIA – doesn’t have accurate deforestation data (Med-High/Short)

• Gaps in data and gaps in coverage

• Carbon Mass Observations

5

Breakout Notes• Deal with economic data

• Columbia university has been working with these type of datasets (pop. data, economic data, etc.).• Tracking commercial real estate, land use transitions, speed limit

increases is causing more sprawl, • Sonorian datasets available

• Put data in formats that are usable – e.g., world population data is spotty

• How can proprietary data be incorporated without compromising personal data? (High/Short)• aggregate to larger scale (CEAP program at NRI is doing that)

6

Breakout Notes• Mining activities – database on, mining claims; surface impact

is not available in a dataset; potential use of the land is available

• Fertilizer use, irrigation, animal densities, no till operation

• Water quality data – sediment data, watershed level data

• Do we need land value, assessed land values; value can be calculated (Med/Short)• National wealth, prices of commodities, economical indicators

• International road database; US does not have multi temporal dataset (Med/Short)

• Nightlight dataset and the change

• Temporal datasets needed

7

Breakout Notes• Fuel wood (cooking in the developing world) dataset

• Datasets needed on natural disasters, conflicts, refugees Campaign for monitoring disturbances etc.(Med/Short)

• Ask the questions before collecting the data

8

Breakout Notes• What are the resolutions and extents required to characterize

carbon relevant land use and transitions due to natural and anthropogenic disturbances? (Med-High/short

• What are the resolutions and extents of the variables required to inform carbon management? (Med/short

• We need to know the energy budget of land use practices? (High/short

• What is the baseline carbon balance for major land uses within particular ecoregions? (High/short• What is the Pattern and changes anticipated under land use and climate

change scenarios

9

Breakout Notes• How do you scale flux tower observations and remote sensing

observations (and fill in the gaps)? (High/short and long)

• How do you constrain flux tower observation by remote sensing observations?

• We must refrain from “paint by numbers” way from the past.

• How can we tie essential variables and work them into the models?• Biomass – above and below ground• Soil moisture & temperature• Leaf area index (LAI) • Land Cover

10

Breakout Notes• What is the map of the potential of soil carbon sequestration?

(High/Long)• We know what the soil carbon content was before / after cultivation

• Can the soil carbon be recharged after cultivation?

• Soil carbon chronological sequences

• We need an assessment of above ground carbon stocks? (High/short and long)

• Phenology and Seasonality (med/short)• Geospatial• More than vegetation (albedo, snow)

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Research Questions – Session 2Research question/topic Priority

H/M/L

Short: ≤10y

Long: >10y

What are the land management practices are being used in croplands, forested lands, grazing lands?

H Short & continuing

What are approaches to enable change attribution to distinguish land use change from land cover change?

H Short/Long

How can proprietary/withheld data be incorporated & analyzed without compromising personal data?

H Short

Who owns this parcel? Who is responsible for its management? (Lack of a national cadastre.)

M/H Short Long

What is the value of this parcel? (Lack of integrated land value databases.)

M Short & continuing

What is the pattern of the transportation networks (roads & rails) past, present, future US & aboard.

M Short & continuing

When & where are natural disasters, conflicts & refugees? (Campaign for monitoring disturbances that can result in land use change.)

M Short & continuing

Session 2 Group 2 - #2 What land-use observations are needed to improve our understanding of how carbon can be managed?

12

Research Questions – Session 2Research question/topic Priority

H/M/L

Short: ≤10y

Long: >10y

What is the geographic distribution of current C stocks, above & belowground?

H Short & continuing

What is the geographic distribution of soil C sequestration potential?

H Long

What is the baseline C balance for major land uses within ecoregions?

H Short

What is the energy budget for major land use practices within ecoregions?

H Short

How do you reconcile scales of flux tower and remote sensing observations to map fluxes synoptically?

H Short Long

What are the resolutions & extents of ECVs+ required to characterize carbon dynamics arising from natural & anthropogenic disturbances?

M/H Short

What are the resolutions and extents of ECVs+ required to inform carbon management?

M Short

What is the phenology/seasonality of ECVs+ including variability and trends?

M Short

Session 2 Group 2 - #1 What ecosystem observations are needed to improve our understanding of carbon on land?

ECVs+ Essential Climate Variables plus descriptors of soil state (moisture, temperature, carbon, nutrients, etc.)