Cropland carbon fluxes in the United States: increasing Geospatial Resolution of Inventory-Based Carbon Accounting

Journal Article · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2010 · Ecological Applications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1890/08-2352.1· OSTI ID:981416

West, Tristram O. ^[1]; Brandt, Craig C ^[1]; Baskaran, Latha Malar ^[1]; Hellwinckel, Chad M ^[1]; Marland, Gregg ^[1]; Nelson, Richard G ^[1]; Post, Wilfred M ^[1]

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1. ORNL

Net annual soil carbon change, fossil fuel emissions from cropland production, and cropland net primary productivity were estimated and spatially distributed using land cover defined by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and by the Cropland Data Layer (CDL). Spatially resolved estimates of net ecosystem exchange (NEE) and net ecosystem carbon balance (NECB) were developed. NEE represents net on-site vertical fluxes of carbon. NECB represents all on-site and off-site carbon fluxes associated with crop production. Estimates of cropland NEE using moderate resolution (~1km2) land cover data were generated for the conterminous US and compared with higher resolution (30m) estimates of NEE and with direct measurements of CO2 flux from croplands in Illinois and Nebraska. Estimates of NEE using the CDL (30m resolution) had a higher correlation with eddy covariance flux tower estimates compared with estimates of NEE using MODIS. Estimates of NECB are primarily driven by net soil carbon change, fossil-fuel emissions associated with crop production, and CO2 emissions from the application of agricultural lime. NEE and NECB for US croplands were -274 and 7 Tg C yr-1 for 2004, respectively. Use of moderate to high resolution satellite-based land cover data enables improved estimates of cropland carbon dynamics.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Work for Others (WFO)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 981416
• Journal Information: Ecological Applications, Vol. 20, Issue 4; ISSN 1051-0761
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
ACCOUNTING
AUGMENTATION
BALANCES
CARBON
CORRELATIONS
CROPS
DYNAMICS
ECOSYSTEMS
FOSSIL FUELS
PRODUCTION
PRODUCTIVITY
RESOLUTION
SOILS
agriculture
cropland data layer
fossil fuel emissions
geographic information system
land cover
land management
MODIS
net primary production
remote sensing
soil carbon