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Image description: The map above depicts the concentration of biomass—a measure of the amount of organic carbon—stored in the trunks, limbs, and leaves of trees. The darkest greens reveal the areas with the densest, tallest, and most robust forest growth. Josef Kellndorfer and Wayne Walker of the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC) recently worked with colleagues at the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Geological Survey to create an inventory where trees are growing in the United States. This map was built from using data from their research. From NASA’s Earth Observatory: “Forests are a key element for human activity,” says Kellndorfer. “Resource managers need to see forests down to the disturbance resolution—the scale at which parking lots or developments or farms are carved out by deforestation. We have to know how much we have, and where, in order to conduct sound management and harvesting.” Learn more about the creation of Kellndorfer’s map and other attempts to measure Earth’s forests in our newest feature story: Seeing Forests for the Trees and the Carbon: 
Mapping the World’s Forests in Three Dimensions.

Image description: The map above depicts the concentration of biomass—a measure of the amount of organic carbon—stored in the trunks, limbs, and leaves of trees. The darkest greens reveal the areas with the densest, tallest, and most robust forest growth. Josef Kellndorfer and Wayne Walker of the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC) recently worked with colleagues at the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Geological Survey to create an inventory where trees are growing in the United States. This map was built from using data from their research.

From NASA’s Earth Observatory:

“Forests are a key element for human activity,” says Kellndorfer. “Resource managers need to see forests down to the disturbance resolution—the scale at which parking lots or developments or farms are carved out by deforestation. We have to know how much we have, and where, in order to conduct sound management and harvesting.”

Learn more about the creation of Kellndorfer’s map and other attempts to measure Earth’s forests in our newest feature story: Seeing Forests for the Trees and the Carbon: 
Mapping the World’s Forests in Three Dimensions.

January 23, 2012
Tagged: NASA, trees, environment,
Source: earthobservatory.nasa.gov

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