Major World Ecosystem Complexes Ranked by Carbon in Live Vegetation: An Updated Database Using the GLC2000 Land Cover Product Contributed by: Holly K. Gibbs Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment-SAGE http://www.sage.wisc.edu University of Wisconsin, Madison 1710 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53726, USA Email: hkgibbs@wisc.edu Prepared by: L.M. Olsen and T.A. Boden Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center Environmental Sciences Division OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-6335 managed by University of Tennessee-Battelle, LLC for the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Date Published: August 2006 CONTENTS ABSTRACT LIST OF TABLES 1. BACKGROUND INFORMATION 2. SOURCE AND SCOPE OF THE DATA 3. APPLICATIONS FOR THE DATA 4. DATA LIMITATIONS AND RESTRICTIONS 5. DESCRIPTION OF PROCESSING ROUTINE 6. REFERENCES 7. HOW TO OBTAIN DATA 8. LISTING OF FILES PROVIDED 9. DESCRIPTION OF THE DOCUMENTATION FILE 10. DESCRIPTION, FORMAT, AND PARTIAL LISTINGS OF THE ASCII DATA FILES ABBREVIATIONS CDIAC = Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center FTP = file transfer protocol GIS = geographic information systems NDP = numeric data package QA = quality assurance ABSTRACT Gibbs, H.K. 2006. Major World Ecosytem Complexes Ranked by Carbon in Live Vegetation: An Updated Database Using the GLC2000 Land Cover Product. NDP-017b. Available at [http://cdiac.ornl.gov/epubs/ndp/ndp017/ndp017b.html] from the Carbon Dioxide Information Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In the 1980s, Olson et al. developed a data base and corresponding map following more than 20 years of field investigations, consultations, and analyses of published literature. The original data characterize the use and vegetative cover of the Earth's land surface with a 0.5 x 0.5 degree grid. The purpose of these world-ecosystem-complex data and the accompanying map were to provide a current reference base for interpreting the role of vegetation in the global cycling of CO2 and other gases and a basis for improved estimates of vegetation and soil carbon, of natural exchanges of CO2, and of net historic shifts of carbon between the biosphere and the atmosphere. These data were widely used and cited in carbon cycle research. This updated database extends the methodology of Olson et al. to more contemporary land cover conditions using remotely sensed imagery and the Global Land Cover Database (GLC2000). The updated data are presented in a GIS format and include estimates of mean and maximum carbon density values. Keywords: biosphere, terrestrial ecosystems, global carbon reservoirs, carbon cycle, vegetation formations, biogeography, climate regions, mapping, human impacts. NDP017b includes the following data and documentation files: - ascii documenation file - carbon density maps (jpegs) - crosswalk table of land cover classifications and carbon densities - gzipped ARC/INFO interchange file (.e00) of maximum carbon densities (grid) - gzipped ARC/INFO interchange file (.e00) of mean carbon densities (grid) See CDIAC's Anonymous FTP service for information on how to download compressed data files. LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Files in this NDP Table 2. Variable formats for biomass_max.VAT (.e00) Table 3. Variable formats for biomass_med.VAT (.e00) Table 4. Crosswalk table between GLC2000 land-cover classification and the Olson classification 1. BACKGROUND INFORMATION This document is an update of Olson, J.S., J.A. Watts, and L.J. Allison. 1985. Major world ecosystem complexes ranked by carbon in live vegetation: A Database. NDP-017, Carbon Dioxide Information Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This NDP was originally prepared by R.E. Millemann and T.A. Boden. Please see ndp017 [http://cdiac.ornl.gov/epubs/ndp/ndp017/ndp017.html] for background information regarding the orignal Olson et al. data set. This spatially-explicit global data set provides estimates and spatial distribution of the above- and below-ground carbon stored in living plant material, and provides an important input to climate, carbon cycle and conservation studies. The data set was created by updating the classic study by Olson et al. (1983,1985) with a contemporary map of global vegetation distribution (Global Land Cover database; GLC2000). 2. SOURCE AND SCOPE OF THE DATA This dataset uses the methodology of Olson et al. (1983, 1985) with a contemporary land cover map (GLC2000) to estimate biomass carbon in vegetation on a global scale. The original Olson data set was derived from vegetation patterns of pre-agricultural vegetation, while this updated data set is based on the land cover conditions in the year 2000 and consequently accounts for human-induced changes in land cover. Each cell in the gridded data set is coded with a carbon (metric ton of C per hectare) value based upon its land cover class. The gridded data is expressed in decimal degrees, in a geographic projection, with a datum opf wgs84. The cellsize for these data is 0.083 decimal degrees. 3. APPLICATIONS FOR THE DATA The rates of CO2 release to the atmosphere and its removal from the atmosphere are controlled by factors affecting photosynthesis, respiration, and burning as well as by shifts in land use and climate. An understanding of these relationships together with increased knowledge of the plant pools undergoing change will enhance our ability to integrate information from biology and geography into the geophysical modeling of element cycles and climate. The map of Major World Ecosystem Complexes provides a current reference base for interpreting the role of vegetation in the global cycling of CO2 and other gases. The data provide a basis for improved estimates of vegetation and soil carbon, of natural exchanges of CO2 and of net historic shifts of carbon between the biosphere and the atmosphere. 4. DATA LIMITATIONS AND RESTRICTIONS More recent biomass studies supersede Olson's estimates for some regions of the world, but Olson (1983,1985) still provides the only globally-consistent estimate of global carbon stored in vegetation. While this map represents an improvement over the original Olson (1983) map through improved satellite-based land cover mapping, it does not fully account for the spatial distribution of biomass across the world or within ecosystem complexes. Ground-based estimates of forest biomass are highly uncertain and the spatial distribution of biomass is even more uncertain. Efforts are underway to account for the influences of climate, soils, topography, and past land use on the spatial distribution of biomass in the world's ecosystems. 5. DESCRIPTION OF PROCESSING ROUTINE Please see ndp017 [http://cdiac.ornl.gov/epubs/ndp/ndp017/ndp017.html] for more information about the methods used by Olson et al. To develop the new data, the Olson land cover classification scheme was translated into the GLC2000 scheme to achieve common land cover classes. Broad forest classes from the World Wildlife Fund's ecoregion map were used to further disaggregate the GLC2000 forest classes into subcategories of boreal, temperate, and tropical dry and humid forest types. Following the assignment of consistent land cover classes, mean and high-end carbon values were applied to each land cover class following the methods of Olson et al. (1983,1985). Total biomass was converted to carbon assuming a carbon content of 50%. The estimates presented here are for total above- and below-ground biomass, which includes biomass in living trees, litter, and coarse woody debris. Following Houghton et al. (2001), the value of each cell was increased by 9% to account for dead biomass. 6. REFERENCES Olson, J.S., Watts,J.A. & Allison,L.J. 1983. Carbon in live vegetation of major world ecosystems. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL-5862, Oak Ridge TN. Olson, J.S., J.A. Watts, and L.J. Allison, 1985. Major World Ecosystem Complexes Ranked by Carbon in Live Vegetation (NDP-017). Carbon Dioxide Information Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge TN. Houghton, R.A., K.T. Lawrence, J.T. Hackler, and S. Brown. 2001. The spatial distribution of forest biomass in the Brazilian Amazon: a comparison of estimates. Global Change Biology 7:731:746. Global Land Cover 2000 Database. European Commission, Joint Research Centre, 2003. [http://www-gem.jrc.it/glc2000"] 7. HOW TO OBTAIN THE DATA AND DOCUMENTATION This database (NDP-017b) is available free of charge from CDIAC. The files are available, via the Internet, from CDIAC's World-Wide-Web site (http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov), or from CDIAC's anonymous file transfer protocol (FTP) area (cdiac.esd.ornl.gov) as follows: FTP to cdiac.esd.ornl.gov (128.219.24.36). Enter "ftp" as the user id. Enter your email address as the password (e.g., fred@zulu.org). Change to the directory "pub/ndp017b" (i.e., use the command "cd pub/ndp017b"). Set ftp to get ASCII files by using the ftp "ascii" command. Retrieve the ASCII database documentation file by using the ftp "get ndp017b.txt" command. Set ftp to get BINARY files by using the ftp "bin" command. Retrieve the compressed data files by using the ftp "mget" *.gz command. Exit the system by using the ftp "quit" command. For non-Internet data acquisitions (e.g., CD-ROM) or for additional information, contact: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center Oak Ridge National Laboratory P.O. Box 2008 Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-6335, U.S.A. Telephone: 1-865-574-3645 Telefax: 1-865-574-2232 E-mail: cdiac@ornl.gov 8. LISTING OF FILES PROVIDED biomass_max.e00.gz: compressed ARC/INFO interchange file (grid) containing maximum biomass estimates biomass_med.e00.gz: compressed ARC/INFO interchange file (grid) containing mean biomass estimates updated_olson_med.jpg: graphic showing mean biomass updated_olson_max.jpg: graphic showing maximum biomass olson_carbon_gibbs032606.xls: spreadsheet containing crosswalk between the GLC2000 land cover classification and Olson's classification 9. DESCRIPTION OF DOCUMENTATION FILE Documentation is available in html form (ndp017b.html) and ASCII text form (this file ndp017b.txt). 10. DESCRIPTION, FORMAT, AND PARTIAL LISTINGS OF THE DATA FILES Table 2 describes the format and contents of the ARC/INFO export file biomass_max.e00.gz distributed with this numeric data package. First 10 data records of biomass_max.e00 (uncompressed): EXP 0 C:\WORKSPACE\C_MAPS\OLSON_GLC\BIOMASS_MAX.E00 GRD 2 4320 1675 1-0.21474836470000E+10 0.83330000000000E-01 0.83330000000000E-01 -0.18000000000000E+03-0.55994000000000E+02 0.17998560000000E+03 0.83583750000000E+02 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 Last 10 data records of biomass_max.e00 (uncompressed): 32 737264 54 96721 87 90929 98 51622 136 207480 152 60421 218 8994 272 298177 EOI EOS Table 3 describes the format and contents of the ARC/INFO export file biomass_med.e00.gz distributed with this numeric data package. First 10 data records of biomass_med.e00 (uncompressed): EXP 0 C:\WORKSPACE\C_MAPS\OLSON_GLC\BIOMASS_MED.E00 GRD 2 4320 1675 1-0.21474836470000E+10 0.83330000000000E-01 0.83330000000000E-01 -0.18000000000000E+03-0.55994000000000E+02 0.17998560000000E+03 0.83583750000000E+02 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 -2147483647 Last 10 data records of biomass_med.e00 (uncompressed): 9 737264 32 96721 43 90929 65 51622 76 224860 98 43041 130 268515 141 38656 EOI EOS Table 4 contains an html version of olson_carbon_gibbs032606.xls (a spreadsheet containing the crosswalk between the GLC2000 land cover classification and Olson's classification).