A modelled carbon account for Australia's post-1990 plantation estate

Abstract

Summary Australia's national carbon account for afforestation and reforestation activities qualifying under Article 3.3 of the Kyoto Protocol between 2008 and 2012 can be estimated using a carbon accounting model supported by a range of forest-related data. Using inventories of current plantation areas and projected expansion of the plantation estate, it is possible to project carbon sequestration in 36 known plantation management regimes to give an annual national account of net (sequestration minus emissions) carbon stock change. Data for the modelling were provided through a range of studies undertaken for the development of the National Carbon Accounting System (NCAS). These included compendiums of available information on management regimes, plantation growth and yield, wood density, carbon contents and allocations to non- stem components of trees. Future refinements of the modelling will include the extraction of a ‘mask’ of relevant afforestation and reforestation activities from the continental multi-temporal Landsat satellite coverages of Australia developed for the NCAS. Other improvements will include the use of the NCAS national annual 1 km grid productivity mapping to determine variability in growth associated with variability in climate and soil characteristics. Soil carbon modelling capability using the Roth C model will also be possible when the spatial mapping is complete and details of plantation areas can be merged with the relevant maps of soils and climate.