Super High-Resolution Carbon Estimates for Endangered Madagascar

Super High-Resolution Carbon Estimates for Endangered Madagascar

Reference- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120214121852.htm

Summary- By combining airborne laser technology, satellite mapping, and ground based plot surveys a team of researchers has produced the first large scale, high resolution estimates of carbon stocks in remote and fragile Madagascar. The group has shown that it is possible to map carbon stocks in rugged geographic regions. That type of carbon monitoring can be successfully employed to support conservation and climate change mitigation under the United Nations initiative on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation. Madagascar has unique flora and fauna found nowhere else on Earth. Its habitat destruction has transformed its tropical forests, leaving a patchwork of different landscapes. The rugged and remote terrain has made it very difficult to measure vegetation carbon content via traditional plot sample methods. The plots alone are impracticable for large sample sizes and often do not account for great degree of landscape variability.

Critique- Madagascar’s unique flora and fauna is found nowhere else on Earth, but habitat destruction has transformed its tropical forests which leaves a patchwork of different landscapes.

Impact- From the destruction from the transformation of its tropical forest the rugged terrain has made it difficult to measure vegetation carbon content via traditional plot sample methods.