Forest Carbon and Climate Change Mitigation

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Scientists from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Conservation Ecology Center, as part of Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO), are studying ecosystems worldwide to understand global patterns in forest carbon. Forest ecosystems are shaping the course of climate change through their influence on atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). As society seeks to mitigate climate change, it is important to find natural climate solutions through forest conservation, management, and reforestation. Ultimately, the success of each solution will depend on high-quality scientific guidance.

Dr. Anderson-Teixeira and colleagues assembled the open-access Global Forest Carbon database (ForC). This is the largest database of ground-based measurements of forest ecosystem carbon data. The ForC database supports basic science; for example, it helps grow our understanding of how forest productivity varies across the globe. The database is also helping to analyze the potential for forest-based control of climate change. ForC datasets have underlain a global analysis of the rate regrowing forests can remove CO2 from the atmosphere. ForC data has also helped improve the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s guidance in national greenhouse gas inventories. A greenhouse gas inventory is an overview of greenhouse gasses which have been emitted into and removed from the atmosphere. The database helps the IPCC account for carbon in forests.

We are currently partnering with the IPCC to make the ForC data more accessible. Practitioners can get access to help collect national greenhouse gas inventories under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). By improving our knowledge on global patterns of forest carbon cycling, this research program helps inform forest-based solutions and optimize climate change mitigation.

Additional Staff

Valentine Herrmann, Ecologist
Susan Cook-Patton, Research Associate

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