Utilization of Atmospheric Measurements to Establish the Carbon Sequestration Capacity of Bamboo Forests

Project background

The four-year pilot project in Anji County in China aims to utilize the Integrated Global Greenhouse Gas Information System (IG3IS) approach, namely accurate atmospheric measurements combined with inverse modeling, to assess the carbon sequestration capacity of the bamboo forest.  

With the implementation of the Paris Agreement underway, it is important for national and subnational stakeholders to consider all available methodologies that can guide greenhouse gas emission mitigation and climate change adaptation. As the levels of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are controlled by the budget of the sources and sinks, one of the mitigation options is to increase the uptake of the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (e.g. sequestration planning using different forest and land types).  

Bamboo forests can be very good tools for carbon sequestration, total ecosystem bamboo forest carbon ranges from 94 to 392 tC/ha (Yuen et al., 2017). Most of large size bamboo species grow faster than fast growing tree species. Importantly, bamboo forest can be harvested selectively, annually with no damage to the environment. Harvested culms will be replaced by new culms within a year. With the modern technology, bamboo products can be made very durable, they can last for at least 30 years and can substitute for other materials such as wood, aluminum, PVC, concrete and metal.

To account for bamboo forest emissions/uptake, some countries are using the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories to report on bamboo, approximating bamboo with a tree, IPCC guidelines provide very specific details for measuring tree species but not for bamboos.  

In this project, an innovative observations-based methodology complements the traditional approach to the emission inventory. The IG3IS provides a general framework for the observations-based emission/removals evaluation. In the case of the landscape scale application, like in this project, the methodology will be tested as applied to the small scale and complex terrain. Atmospheric observations will be used as an input to the high-resolution inverse models to deduct CO2 flux. Supplementary measurements will be used to attribute the fluxes to photosynthetic activity. These estimates will be then compared with the changes in carbon stocks calculated following emission inventory approach. The good practices from New Zealand will be used to guide methodological developments.  

Objective(s)

  • Develop a methodology for the objective assessment of the carbon sequestration potential by bamboo forest (including contribution to the IPCC TFI guidance).
  • Evaluate the carbon sequestration potential by bamboo forest depending on the land management and environmental conditions.  

Outputs

  1. Installed observational infrastructure  
  2. Modelling tools adopted to application area
  3. Observational datasets of CO2, CO, SOC and radiocarbon from the studies area  
  4. Carbon stocks inventory 

Expected outcomes

  • Improved understanding of the processes that drive variability of CO2, CO, SOC and radiocarbon at the landscape scale with attribution of fluxes to the specific sources/sinks in the study area using additional carbon isotope measurements.  
  • Advanced characterization of CO2 fluxes of over the bamboo forest via combination of the inverse modelling and emission inventory.
  • Improved methodology for the characterization of CO2 uptake by the bamboo forest with potential refinement of the IPCC Guidelines connecting uptakes with the forest management practice.
  • Improved capacity of the INBAR member countries to characterize CO2 uptake by bamboo forest.

Achievements

  • During the first year, INBAR set up 30 sampling plots in the studied bamboo forest in Anji.  
  • Three inventories were conducted.  
  • Two towers were constructed in the studies area.
  • Measurements started in August 2023.
  • Workshop was conducted in October 2024 with the institutions outside of the project to raise awareness of the methodology.
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Ongoing
Total Funding:
US$ 1,162,812.00
WMO Long-Term Goal(s):
  • Research
Focus Area(s):
  • Observations
  • Data Management

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