
Cost – the equipment is expensive so only a small number of flux stations are currently online (four long-term flux monitoring stations in the UK, 30 sites across Europe).Net flux measurements – the ecosystem’s entire carbon pool is covered, including dead wood, litter and other fractions that are too difficult to measure using stock-change methods.State-of-the-art sensors using a technique called eddy correlation to continuously monitor carbon exchange between all the carbon pools in a forest ecosystem and the atmosphere.įorest Research uses this technique to measure carbon exchange in lowland oak woodland at the Straits Flux Station. C-SORT – under development, focusing on carbon sequestration in wood productsįlux-based carbon accounting directly measures the flow of carbon into and out of the forest.CARBINE – developed my Forest Research, based on forest growth and yield models.
C-FLOW – developed by CEH (Edinburgh), currently used for national reporting of carbon stock changes associated with forest biomass. They use theoretical and empirically derived models of carbon flows through the forestry value chain. Several carbon accounting models are applicable to the UK. At a district, national or global scale, the size of, and changes to, the wood products pool is only possible using available statisticsĪn inventory-based approach, particularly if used to assess carbon stocks or sequestration in woody biomass only, can be used to cover large land areas and a variety of species and site conditions. Accounting for carbon stocks in wood products is impossible for individual stands of trees – the fate of harvested wood cannot be tracked once it has left the forest. Carbon stocks or stock changes in harvested wood products may or may not be assessed, depending on the purpose of the inventory. Small changes in soil carbon are difficult to measure in comparison to total soil carbon. Carbon content of the soil is seldom included because it is difficult to define and carry out cost-effective assessments of soil carbon. Leaf biomass, ground vegetation and litter are often ignored. Carbon content in non-stem components are calculated using an ‘expansion factor’, also known as a ‘total:merchantable’ ratio, which depends greatly on tree species, stand age, management and environmental conditions. Problems associated with carbon stock accounting: Conventional forest mensuration methods estimate timber volumes, which then convert to dry weight – and hence carbon – using reference tables. The simplest method of assessment looks at how carbon stocks have changed between two points in time. Measurement of carbon levels in forestry stock The most robust and cost-effective carbon stock accounts will typically combine all three approaches alongside remote sensing technology (satellite imagery and aerial photography). The best method to use depends mainly on the objectives of the assessment, its geographical scale and the resources available to carry out the evaluation. Inventory-based carbon accounting models. Periodic, direct measurements of carbon in forestry stock. There are three ways in which carbon levels are accounted for in forestry: When governments or regulators get involved in negotiations about greenhouse gas emissions or carbon trading, they rely on scientifically robust, verifiable measurements of the value and volume of carbon produced or sequestered by human activities. Flux stock how to#
How to calculate rates of carbon emissions and sequestration