Title :
The Effects of Land Use Change on the Terrestrial Carbon Budgets of New England
Author :
Jeon, Sung Bae ; Woodcock, Curtis E. ; Zhao, Feng ; Yang, Xiaoyuan ; Houghton, Richard A. ; Hackler, Joseph L.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Geogr. & Environ., Boston Univ., Boston, MA
Abstract :
A regional scale examination of the effects of land use change on the terrestrial carbon budgets of New England from 1700 to 2100 indicates New England has been a carbon sink since about 1900 because of agricultural land abandonment that began in the mid 1800s and subsequent forest regrowth. However, recent land use change for new development has resulted in forest loss in New England, reversing the previous trend of increasing forest area. Analysis of Landsat data from 1990 to 2005 shows consistent patterns of forest loss. Preliminary results of a bookkeeping carbon model indicate a net release of 207 TgC for the period 1700-2005. Since 1900, New England has been a carbon sink and will continue to be one until around 2075. The loss of forest area due to urban growth reduces the magnitude of the current sink and length of time New England will be a carbon sink.
Keywords :
agriculture; atmospheric boundary layer; land use planning; AD 1700 to 2100; Landsat data; New England; agricultural land abandonment; carbon sink; forest loss; forest regrowth; land use change; terrestrial carbon budget; Atmosphere; Carbon dioxide; Data analysis; Ecosystems; Geography; Humans; Layout; Pattern analysis; Remote sensing; Satellites; Land use change; New England; terrestrial carbon budget;
Conference_Titel :
Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2008. IGARSS 2008. IEEE International
Conference_Location :
Boston, MA
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-2807-6
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4244-2808-3
DOI :
10.1109/IGARSS.2008.4780063
