Measuring the extent of trees outside of forests
A nature-based solution for net zero emissions in South Asia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15545967 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David L Skole (0000-0002-8575-3540, Michigan State University, corresponding author), Jay H Samek (0000-0003-1877-3565, Michigan State University), Swapan Mehra (Institute for Ecological Economy Research), Rajaditya Bajaj (0009-0009-2962-9025), Tanishq Tanmay (Michigan State University), Sangeetha Suresh (0009-0002-1005-7185, Michigan State University), Shrey Jindal (Michigan State University), Dan Ndalowa (Michigan State University) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 11 |
| Pages | 114092-114092 |
| Publication date | 2024-10-08 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Research Letters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326 |
| Publisher | IOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1088/1748-9326/ad845d |
| OpenAlex | W4403222684 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 42 |
To reduce emissions of carbon and other greenhouse gases on a pathway that does not overshoot and keeps global average temperature increase to below the 1.5 °C target stipulated by the Paris Agreement, it shall be necessary to rely on nature-based solutions with atmospheric removals. Without activities that create removals by carbon sequestration it will not be possible to balance residual emissions. Policies that focus solely on reducing deforestation will only lower future emissions. On the other hand, activities that include regeneration or regrowth of tree biomass can be used to create net-zero emissions through carbon sequestration and atmospheric removals now. New methods demonstrated here using high resolution remote sensing and deep machine learning enable analyses of carbon stocks of individual trees outside of forests (TOF). Allometric scaling models based on tree crowns at very high spatial resolution (<0.5 m) can map carbon stocks across large landscapes of millions of trees outside of forests. In addition to carbon removals, these landscapes are also important to livelihoods for millions of rural farmers and most TOF activities have the capacity to bring more countries into climate mitigation while also providing adaptation benefits. Here were present a multi-resolution, multi-sensor method that provides a way to measure carbon at the individual tree level in TOF landscapes in India. The results of this analysis show the effectiveness of mapping trees outside of forest across a range of satellite data resolution from 0.5 m to 10 m and for measuring carbon across large landscapes at the individual tree scale
Agroforestry · Atmospheric sciences · Biology · Climatology · Economics · Geometry · Natural resource economics · Net (polyhedron · Physics · Zero (linguistics · Zero emission · Environmental Science · Forest ecology and management · Mathematics · Ecology · Geology
Benchmark map of forest carbon stocks in tropical regions across three continents
Global Tree Cover and Biomass Carbon on Agricultural Land
High-Resolution Global Maps of 21st-Century Forest Cover Change
Global Warming of 1.5°C
Why residual emissions matter right now
Assessing the size and uncertainty of remaining carbon budgets
Assessing UN indicators of land degradation neutrality and proportion of degraded land for Botswana using remote sensing based national level metrics
Moving toward Net-Zero Emissions Requires New Alliances for Carbon Dioxide Removal
Fostering natural forest regeneration on former agricultural land through economic and policy interventions
A first map of tropical Africa’s above-ground biomass derived from satellite imagery
Social as much as environmental
Severe decline in large farmland trees in India over the past decade
Achieving mitigation and adaptation to climate change through sustainable agroforestry practices in Africa
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |