Forest carbon stocks in Newfoundland boreal forests of harvest and natural disturbance origin II: model evaluation

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Forest Research
• Main Authors: Moroni, M. T., Shaw, C. H., Kurz, W. A., Rampley, G. J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 2010
• Subjects: Ecology; Forestry; Global and Planetary Change; Canada; Snag; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/x10-155; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/X10-155; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/X10-155

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommends that countries that use advanced (Tier 3) models to meet their international reporting obligations on forest greenhouse gas emissions and removals evaluate model predictions against independent field data. Unfortunately, estimates of total ecosystem C stocks and stock changes are scarce and consequently the recommended evaluations are rarely completed. The Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector (CBM-CFS3) is the core model of Canada’s National Forest Carbon Monitoring, Accounting, and Reporting System that implements an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Tier 3 approach. It accounts for biomass, dead organic matter, and soil C pools as affected by natural and anthropogenic disturbances. We used data from a recent study of total ecosystem C stocks for black spruce ( Picea mariana (Mill.) BSP) and balsam fir ( Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.) boreal forest chronosequences of different disturbance origins in Newfoundland, Canada, to evaluate C stock and stock change predictions from the CBM-CFS3. Results indicated that the accuracy of the CBM-CFS3 is high for landscape-scale estimation of C stocks. Comparison of estimates stratified by lead species or disturbance type indicated that model accuracy could be improved at finer scales by increasing specific model parameters such as the snag fall rate and woody debris decay rates relative to default parameters.