The Forest Observation System, building a global reference dataset for remote sensing of forest biomass

International audienceForest biomass is an essential indicator for monitoring the Earth's ecosystems and climate. It is a critical input to greenhouse gas accounting, estimation of carbon losses and forest degradation, assessment of renewable energy potential, and for developing climate change mitigation policies such as REDD+, among others. Wall-to-wall mapping of aboveground biomass (aGB) is now possible with satellite remote sensing (RS). However, RS methods require extant, up-to-date, reliable, representative and comparable in situ data for calibration and validation. Here, we present the Forest Observation System (FOS) initiative, an international cooperation to establish and maintain a global in situ forest biomass database. aGB and canopy height estimates with their associated uncertainties are derived at a 0.25 ha scale from field measurements made in permanent research plots across the world's forests. all plot estimates are geolocated and have a size that allows for direct comparison with many RS measurements. The FOS offers the potential to improve the accuracy of RS-based biomass products while developing new synergies between the RS and ground-based ecosystem research communities

Archival analysis of slash-and-burn agriculture in the Northern Ural Mountains at the end of the nineteenth century

Abstract At the end of the nineteenth century, the northern territories of the Russian Plain and western piedmont of Northern Ural Mountains were under various land-use systems, including slash-and-burn (SAB) agriculture. Using archival materials for the years 1880–1910 as data sources, we analyse the the location and extent of SAB agriculture, it timing, and its impact on the landscapes at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and present a review of the historical and ethnographic literature. The study area is in the western piedmont of the Northern Ural Mountains, between the Kama and Pechora rivers in dark conifer dominated forests. The population is sparse (14 people per 100 km² in 1900) and settled along the rivers. In 1885 the practice of SAB agriculture was totally prohibited, but the unusually large crop harvest during the first years of the ban led people to risk breaking the law. Between the years 1885 and 1894 a total number of 175 SAB cases was recorded in the study area. The SAB sites were used only once before being abandoned. The recorded plots were usually cultivated by one family. They small (0.03 ha to 2.70 ha, with a median of 0.55 ha) and located within 7.5 km of the settlements. The practice SAB agriculture led to the formation of mosaics of multiple-aged pyrogenic forest associations near the settlements