Total Aboveground Carbon

Identifying ecosystem carbon is essential to land managers and the Total Aboveground Carbon metric provides an estimate of the amount of existing carbon and its location on California's landscape. The metric also serves to provide context for the other metrics used to quantify carbon sequestration. For example, instability or lack of resilience in forests with low total aboveground carbon would be of less concern than the same degree of instability in a forest that has large total aboveground carbon.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Version Version 5.0
Last Updated March 28, 2025, 08:36 (UTC)
Created March 7, 2025, 07:53 (UTC)
category /Carbon Sequestration/Storage
collection_name California Landscape Metrics
creation_method The Center for Ecosystem Climate Solutions (CECS) DataEngine model tracks monthly carbon in multiple pools from 1986 to 2020. The carbon components are initialized with eMapR (see [Additional Resources](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EXX5xwUrAV0TYCkhx3dVRJD1iIdTn376/edit#heading=h.1qoc8b1)) observations for the early Landsat era; the model then runs freely based on Landsat and other observations. Disturbances and disturbance intensity are tracked annually by Landsat (see other metrics developed by CECS) and used to quantitatively transfer or combust pools. The model allocates and turns over material based on allometric scaling theory, as adjusted by observational data sets. Aboveground pools (live tree, live shrubs and dead material) are summed for September of 2020. CECS data that reflect landscape changes resulting from disturbances require 6 to 12 months of Landsat observations **after a given year that included major disturbances (such as a high severity wildfire)** to fully quantify that disturbance. CECS data that reflect disturbance, such as this data layer, are therefore available **through water year 2020 (i.e. through September 2020)**.
data_units Grams dry matter/m2
data_vintage 09/2020
date_updated August 2024
element Storage
encoding utf8
file_name CStocksTotalAbove_202009_202312_T1_v5
format GeoTiff
harvest_object_id 823a7527-05e3-4301-8726-19ba90264979
harvest_source_id a2637971-af12-457f-ae4a-831d2202a539
harvest_source_title WIFIRE Commons
maximum_value 100000.0
metric_definition_and_relevance Identifying ecosystem carbon is essential to land managers and the Total Aboveground Carbon metric provides an estimate of the amount of existing carbon and its location on California's landscape. The metric also serves to provide context for the other metrics used to quantify carbon sequestration. For example, instability or lack of resilience in forests with low total aboveground carbon would be of less concern than the same degree of instability in a forest that has large total aboveground carbon.
minimum_value 0.0
pillar Carbon Sequestration
spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-124.5090833859125, 32.4242698701859], [-113.49380570277376, 32.4242698701859], [-113.49380570277376, 42.1119747450123], [-124.5090833859125, 42.1119747450123], [-124.5090833859125, 32.4242698701859]]]}
tier 1