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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWant to See Every Tree in America?
Want to See Every Tree in America?
We may sing about purple mountains and amber grains, but one of America's most vital resources is its vast amount of carbon-catching, oxygen-spewing trees. Now, after six years of effort, NASA knows how many we've got.
Josef Kellndorfer and Wayne Walker of NASA's Woods Hole Research Center worked in conjunction with the National Geological Survey and US Forest Service to catalog a mix of data gleaned from space-based radar, satellite sensors, computer models, and old-fashioned tree counting. The map above shows the total amount of woody biomass in the USA. It's displayed at a 30 meter resolution, where every four pixels constitutes an acre and every ten represents a hectare. In total, Kellendorfer estimates some five million trees reside on US soil. [NASA Earth Observatory via Business Insider via Geekosystem]
http://gizmodo.com/5876091/want-to-see-every-tree-in-america
Trees are one of Earths largest banks for storing the carbon that gets emitted by natural processes and human activities. Forests cover about 30 percent of the planets surface, and as much as 45 percent of the carbon stored on land is tied up in forests.
But did global forests hold more or less carbon in the past? And could they store more in the future? Does it matter where those trees are growing? Scientists really dont know. But before they can find out, theyll need a reliable inventory of what is growing today.
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 such an inventory for the United States. The map above was built from the National Biomass and Carbon Dataset (NBCD), released in 2011. It depicts the concentration of biomassa measure of the amount of organic carbonstored in the trunks, limbs, and leaves of trees. The darkest greens reveal the areas with the densest, tallest, and most robust forest growth.
Over six years, researchers assembled the national forest map from space-based radar, satellite sensors, computer models, and a massive amount of ground-based data. It is possibly the highest resolution and most detailed view of forest structure and carbon storage ever assembled for any country.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=76697
peacebird
(14,195 posts)MineralMan
(146,254 posts)here in St. Paul, MN. 32%+ of the area in the city is covered by tree canopies. Minneapolis has a similar coverage. There's a great page on the St. Paul urban forest here:
http://www.stpaul.gov/index.aspx?NID=4581
Neoma
(10,039 posts)Not enough...
The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)Neoma
(10,039 posts)I know a part in Tennessee where there be a bigfoot sightin'!
Unfortunately I'm perfectly serious...
Fawke Em
(11,366 posts)Nothing I'd like more than to see a Squatch!
They're out in the sticks, rather isolated. Very high cancer rate for some reason. Bible belt kind of place.
Fawke Em
(11,366 posts)It's west of Nashville.
Loads of family members there.
DocMac
(1,628 posts)want to relocate to the Northeast.
Cool pic.
Fawke Em
(11,366 posts)the Finding Bigfoot researchers.
I wonder if they met Gov. Sanford?
DocMac
(1,628 posts)Neoma
(10,039 posts)They found out about wild horses living there. Why not bigfoot?
socialindependocrat
(1,372 posts)I was thinking that if we have 300 million people in the U.S.
then 5 million trees seems like a very low count.
Whatever....
Neoma
(10,039 posts)Among other types.
ProdigalJunkMail
(12,017 posts)"In total, Kellendorfer estimates some five million trees reside on US soil."
um, little short on his estimate...
sP
The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)socialindependocrat
(1,372 posts)Itchinjim
(3,084 posts)i_sometimes
(201 posts)5 million? I can count sixty in my back yard alone.
The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)Forests in the U.S. were mapped down to a scale of 30 meters, or roughly 10 computer display pixels for every hectare of land (4 pixels per acre). They divided the country into 66 mapping zones and ended up mapping 265 million segments of the American land surface. Kellndorfer estimates that their mapping database includes measurements of about five million trees.
-But perhaps how many they have direct data on.
ProdigalJunkMail
(12,017 posts)is to blame. no biggie...just really jumped out at me. some of my family are in forestry and they would laugh at that number..
still...very cool project...
sP
The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)Dreamer Tatum
(10,926 posts)As is this map.
ProdigalJunkMail
(12,017 posts)I suggest applying for funding now...
sP
Saving Hawaii
(441 posts)Almond trees, walnut trees, pistachio trees, olive trees, orange trees. The orchards go on and on and on.
FredStembottom
(2,928 posts)Half forest. Half prairie.
Lakes everywhere.
Come visit sometime, don'tcha know!