Harmonized Methods for Assessing Carbon Sequestration in European Forests

The MASCAREF (Study under EEC 2152/2003 Forest Focus regulation on developing harmonized methods for assessing carbon sequestration in European forests) project was conducted by a consortium of 10 European institutions coordinated by IFER ¿ Institute of Forest Ecosystem Research, Czech Republic. The overall objective of this project was to contribute to the development of a monitoring scheme for carbon sequestration in forests of the European Union (EU). Specifically, the project aimed at i) strengthening and harmonizing the existing national systems to better meet the requirements of international monitoring and reporting of greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions and sinks and ii) improving the comparability, transparency and accuracy of the GHG inventory reports of the Land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector of the EU Member States, as implemented in the EC Monitoring Mechanism. This project represents a step towards addressing the challenges of GHG inventories and the reporting under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto protocol related to forest land and forest activities. Reflecting the heterogeneity in land use, natural conditions and monitoring data availability, there is a wide variety in greenhouse gas reporting practices within the European Community, which becomes clearly apparent from an overview of the current GHG reporting practices prepared by MASCAREF. The particular tasks of the project were based on available data from regional, national and EU-wide projects and relevant activities that took place over the last decade. The project elaboration was conducted within several major tasks, followed by selected regional case-studies. Firstly, the currently available data and methodological approaches to estimate carbon stock and carbon stock change for emission inventories were analyzed. Secondly, the project conducted an analysis of ICP Forests health monitoring and Forest Focus programs. Similarly, it assessed the potential of utilizing data from the European National Forest Inventories for the purpose of emission inventory under UNFCCC and the Kyoto protocol. Related to this, the JRC AFOLUDATA website on biomass functions and conversion/expansion factors http://afoludata.jrc.ec.europa.eu/index.php/public_area/home) was complemented by adding new factors from the European member states. Also, the methodologies to aggregate the forest carbon stock data based on the National Forest Inventory plots to a 10x10 km grid were explored. Finally, several of the above tasks were elaborated and/or applied in case studies in the selected regions of Europe. The MASCAREF project fulfilled its main objectives and its results should facilitate a further development of monitoring schemes for carbon stock change assessment in forests of the European member states, hopefully leading to an improved GHG reportingJRC.DDG.H.2-Climate chang

Preparing emission reporting from forests : use of National Forest Inventories in European countries

We examine the current status of greenhouse gas inventories of the sector Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF), in European countries, with specific focus on the utilization of National Forest Inventory (NFI) programs. LULUCF inventory is an integral part of the reporting obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol. The analysis is based on two questionnaires prepared by the COST Action E43 “Harmonisation of National Forest Inventories in Europe”, which were answered by greenhouse gas reporting experts in European countries. The following major conclusions can be drawn from the analysis: 1) definitions used to obtain carbon pool change estimates vary widely among countries and are not directly comparable 2) NFIs play a key role for LULUCF greenhouse gas estimation and reporting under UNFCCC, and provide the fundamental data needed for the estimation of carbon stock changes covering not only living biomass, but increasingly also deadwood, litter and soil compartments. The study highlights the effects of adopting different definitions for two major reporting processes, namely UNFCCC and FAO, and exemplifies the effect of different tree diameter thresholds on carbon stock change estimates for Finland. The results demonstrate that more effort is needed to harmonize forest inventory estimates for the purpose of making the estimates of forest carbon pool changes comparable. This effort should lead to a better utilization of the data from the European NFI programs and improve the European greenhouse gas reporting

Comparative Analysis of Volatile Defensive Secretions of Three Species of Pyrrhocoridae (Insecta: Heteroptera) by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometric Method.

The true bugs (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) have evolved a system of well-developed scent glands that produce diverse and frequently strongly odorous compounds that act mainly as chemical protection against predators. A new method of non-lethal sampling with subsequent separation using gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection was proposed for analysis of these volatile defensive secretions. Separation was performed on Rtx-200 column containing fluorinated polysiloxane stationary phase. Various mechanical irritation methods (ultrasonics, shaking, pressing bugs with plunger of syringe) were tested for secretion sampling with a special focus on non-lethal irritation. The preconcentration step was performed by sorption on solid phase microextraction (SPME) fibers with different polarity. For optimization of sampling procedure, Pyrrhocoris apterus was selected. The entire multi-parameter optimization procedure of secretion sampling was performed using response surface methodology. The irritation of bugs by pressing them with a plunger of syringe was shown to be the most suitable. The developed method was applied to analysis of secretions produced by adult males and females of Pyrrhocoris apterus, Pyrrhocoris tibialis and Scantius aegyptius (all Heteroptera: Pyrrhocoridae). The chemical composition of secretion, particularly that of alcohols, aldehydes and esters, is species-specific in all three pyrrhocorid species studied. The sexual dimorphism in occurrence of particular compounds is largely limited to alcohols and suggests their epigamic intraspecific function. The phenetic overall similarities in composition of secretion do not reflect either relationship of species or similarities in antipredatory color pattern. The similarities of secretions may be linked with antipredatory strategies. The proposed method requires only a few individuals which remain alive after the procedure. Thus secretions of a number of species including even the rare ones can be analyzed and broadly conceived comparative studies can be carried out

Optimum Conditions for the Method of Sampling Secretions Using Ultrasonics and a Shaker.

<p>Optimum Conditions for the Method of Sampling Secretions Using Ultrasonics and a Shaker.</p

Selected Parameters and Their Tested Levels for Sampling Secretion Using Compression in the Plunger of a Syringe.

<p>Selected Parameters and Their Tested Levels for Sampling Secretion Using Compression in the Plunger of a Syringe.</p

Dendrogram depicting the qualitative similarities in chemical profiles among the analysed sampled.

<p>The clustering was based on distance matrix, in which the distance between each pair of samples was expressed as a number of compounds exclusively present in one of the samples and absent in the other. All 135 detected compounds were considered, single linkage clustering algorithm was used for tree construction (for details, see Section <i>Comparison of secretions between true-bug species</i>).</p

The response surface plot.

<p>The plot depicts the dependence of the sum of all the peaks (upper) (a.u., arbitrary units) and the number of peaks (bottom) on the temperature of SPME sorption and time of SPME sorption; irritation by compressing the true bugs with the plunger of a syringe; SPME sorption on a DVB/CAR/PDMS fiber; tempering time prior to compression 1 min; temperature prior to compression 40°C.</p

Optimum Conditions for the Method of Sampling Secretions Using Compression in the Plunger of a Syringe.

<p>Optimum Conditions for the Method of Sampling Secretions Using Compression in the Plunger of a Syringe.</p