Canadian land cover map / study areas
The BOREAS-follow on Project to determine how carbon storage in boreal forests change in response to wildfire was set in the northern edge of the Canadian boreal forest in Manitoba, Canada, the former Northern Study Area (NSA) in Thompson Manitoba from BOREAS. CREDIT: Canadian Model Forest Program
Northern study area
This satellite image of the Northern Study Area, Manitoba, Canada was taken by the Landsat satellite on July 25, 1990. The bodies of water can be seen in blue. The landscape is a mosaic of different aged stands that are in various stages of recovery from wildfire. Each of the colored patches corresponds to a different aged stand. The years corresponding to the areas indicate the last year of forest fire. CREDIT: NASA/USGS
Scientists studying trees ranging from saplings to 130 years old in Canada’s northern forests have discovered that the period since a fire last swept through an area determines how much carbon the forest can store. Twenty to forty year old stands absorb more carbon than those 70 years old and older, despite being smaller and having less biomass or plant material.
Boreal or northern forests account for close to 25 percent of total carbon stored in vegetation and soils in the Earth’s biosphere. Wildfires burn down individual areas every 40 to 250 years and are an important part of this ecosystem. Whether or not these forests are likely to lower or raise levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere depends on how these carbon reserves respond to, and recover from, both climate change and disturbances such as wildfires.
NASA funded part of this study under its Earth Science Enterprise (ESE), whose mission is to understand and protect our home planet. Earth Science in NASA seeks to understand trends in land cover and land use, such as forest fires, that drive global climate. Another Earth Science program objective is to understand the Earth system’s response to natural and human-induced changes, and effects on global carbon cycle.
Rob Gutro | NASA / Goddard Space Flight Cent
Further information:
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2003/0311firecarbon.html
Northeast-Atlantic fish stocks: Recovery driven by improved management
04.02.2019 | Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut, Bundesforschungsinstitut für Ländliche Räume, Wald und Fischerei
New mathematical model can help save endangered species
14.01.2019 | University of Southern Denmark
For the first time, an international team of scientists based in Regensburg, Germany, has recorded the orbitals of single molecules in different charge states in a novel type of microscopy. The research findings are published under the title “Mapping orbital changes upon electron transfer with tunneling microscopy on insulators” in the prestigious journal “Nature”.
The building blocks of matter surrounding us are atoms and molecules. The properties of that matter, however, are often not set by these building blocks...
Scientists at the University of Konstanz identify fierce competition between the human immune system and bacterial pathogens
Cell biologists from the University of Konstanz shed light on a recent evolutionary process in the human immune system and publish their findings in the...
Laser physicists have taken snapshots of carbon molecules C₆₀ showing how they transform in intense infrared light
When carbon molecules C₆₀ are exposed to an intense infrared light, they change their ball-like structure to a more elongated version. This has now been...
The so-called Abelian sandpile model has been studied by scientists for more than 30 years to better understand a physical phenomenon called self-organized...
Physicists from the University of Basel have developed a new method to examine the elasticity and binding properties of DNA molecules on a surface at extremely low temperatures. With a combination of cryo-force spectroscopy and computer simulations, they were able to show that DNA molecules behave like a chain of small coil springs. The researchers reported their findings in Nature Communications.
DNA is not only a popular research topic because it contains the blueprint for life – it can also be used to produce tiny components for technical applications.
Anzeige
Anzeige
Global Legal Hackathon at HAW Hamburg
11.02.2019 | Event News
The world of quantum chemistry meets in Heidelberg
30.01.2019 | Event News
16.01.2019 | Event News
Gravitational waves will settle cosmic conundrum
15.02.2019 | Physics and Astronomy
Spintronics by 'straintronics'
15.02.2019 | Physics and Astronomy
Platinum nanoparticles for selective treatment of liver cancer cells
15.02.2019 | Life Sciences