IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v6y2017i1p10-d88923.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fire and the Distribution and Uncertainty of Carbon Sequestered as Aboveground Tree Biomass in Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

Author

Listed:
  • James A. Lutz

    (Department of Wildland Resources, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA)

  • John R. Matchett

    (US Geological Survey Western Ecological Research Center, Oakhurst, CA 93644, USA)

  • Leland W. Tarnay

    (Yosemite National Park, Yosemite, CA 95389, USA
    Currently at: USDA Forest Service, Region 5 Remote Sensing Lab, Truckee, CA 96161, USA)

  • Douglas F. Smith

    (Yosemite National Park, Yosemite, CA 95389, USA
    Currently at: USDA Forest Service, Superior National Forest, Ely, MN 55731, USA)

  • Kendall M. L. Becker

    (Department of Wildland Resources, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA)

  • Tucker J. Furniss

    (Department of Wildland Resources, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA)

  • Matthew L. Brooks

    (US Geological Survey Western Ecological Research Center, Oakhurst, CA 93644, USA)

Abstract

Fire is one of the principal agents changing forest carbon stocks and landscape level distributions of carbon, but few studies have addressed how accurate carbon accounting of fire-killed trees is or can be. We used a large number of forested plots (1646), detailed selection of species-specific and location-specific allometric equations, vegetation type maps with high levels of accuracy, and Monte Carlo simulation to model the amount and uncertainty of aboveground tree carbon present in tree species (hereafter, carbon) within Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks. We estimated aboveground carbon in trees within Yosemite National Park to be 25 Tg of carbon (C) (confidence interval (CI): 23–27 Tg C), and in Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park to be 20 Tg C (CI: 18–21 Tg C). Low-severity and moderate-severity fire had little or no effect on the amount of carbon sequestered in trees at the landscape scale, and high-severity fire did not immediately consume much carbon. Although many of our data inputs were more accurate than those used in similar studies in other locations, the total uncertainty of carbon estimates was still greater than ±10%, mostly due to potential uncertainties in landscape-scale vegetation type mismatches and trees larger than the ranges of existing allometric equations. If carbon inventories are to be meaningfully used in policy, there is an urgent need for more accurate landscape classification methods, improvement in allometric equations for tree species, and better understanding of the uncertainties inherent in existing carbon accounting methods.

Suggested Citation

  • James A. Lutz & John R. Matchett & Leland W. Tarnay & Douglas F. Smith & Kendall M. L. Becker & Tucker J. Furniss & Matthew L. Brooks, 2017. "Fire and the Distribution and Uncertainty of Carbon Sequestered as Aboveground Tree Biomass in Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks," Land, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-24, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:6:y:2017:i:1:p:10-:d:88923
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/6/1/10/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/6/1/10/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James A Lutz & Andrew J Larson & James A Freund & Mark E Swanson & Kenneth J Bible, 2013. "The Importance of Large-Diameter Trees to Forest Structural Heterogeneity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(12), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Katherine D. Morrison & Crystal A. Kolden, 2014. "Development of a Historical Multi-Year Land Cover Classification Incorporating Wildfire Effects," Land, MDPI, vol. 3(4), pages 1-18, September.
    3. James A Lutz & Andrew J Larson & Mark E Swanson & James A Freund, 2012. "Ecological Importance of Large-Diameter Trees in a Temperate Mixed-Conifer Forest," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(5), pages 1-15, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shaohan Wang & Shuang Song & Mengxi Shi & Shanshan Hu & Shuhan Xing & He Bai & Dawei Xu, 2023. "China’s National Park Construction Contributes to Carbon Peaking and Neutrality Goals," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-22, July.
    2. Alistair M. S. Smith & James A. Lutz & Chad M. Hoffman & Grant J. Williamson & Andrew T. Hudak, 2018. "Preface: Special Issue on Wildland Fires," Land, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-4, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shaw, C.H. & Hilger, A.B. & Metsaranta, J. & Kurz, W.A. & Russo, G. & Eichel, F. & Stinson, G. & Smyth, C. & Filiatrault, M., 2014. "Evaluation of simulated estimates of forest ecosystem carbon stocks using ground plot data from Canada's National Forest Inventory," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 272(C), pages 323-347.
    2. Sara J. Germain & James A. Lutz, 2020. "Climate extremes may be more important than climate means when predicting species range shifts," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 579-598, November.
    3. Tyson L Swetnam & Christopher D O’Connor & Ann M Lynch, 2016. "Tree Morphologic Plasticity Explains Deviation from Metabolic Scaling Theory in Semi-Arid Conifer Forests, Southwestern USA," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(7), pages 1-16, July.
    4. James A Lutz & Andrew J Larson & James A Freund & Mark E Swanson & Kenneth J Bible, 2013. "The Importance of Large-Diameter Trees to Forest Structural Heterogeneity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(12), pages 1-13, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:6:y:2017:i:1:p:10-:d:88923. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.