Biomass map tracks forests and carbon in Africa
The results of "slash and burn" in Mozambique. Photo: Frank Merry.
Scientists are using a biomass map in Africa to help manage and preserve natural resources. It shows how much live vegetation, or biomass, covers a specific area of land.
The tropical zones of Africa are home to dense and humid forests. They contain a diverse spread of life and absorb and store carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Using biomass maps, made using satellites, scientists can infer how much carbon is contained in the forest and how much could be released into the atmosphere by deforestation.
In Africa, it’s common practice for people to clear a patchwork of land to farm and feed their families. They cut the trees down with machetes and set fire to the area. Then they plant in the ashes, which help fertilize the crops. This is called slash and burn.
Nadine Laporte: When they burn the biomass, you have CO2 which is emitted in the atmosphere, and so it increases CO2 and changes the climate. It gets warmer and warmer.
That’s Nadine Laporte, the director of the Africa Program at the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts. She developed the new biomass maps for Africa. She said it’s more difficult to prevent slash and burn by families in Africa than deforestation that’s driven by industry in other countries.
Our thanks today to NASA: explore, discover, understand.
‘Mapping the Changing Forests of Africa’
Our thanks to:
Nadine Laporte
Director of Africa Programs
Woods Hole Research Center
Falmouth, MA
Additional Teacher Resources
NASA: Mapping the Changing Forests of Africa
Land-use change and its global and local effects are interrelated from the point of view of Nadine Laporte, a scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Laporte is the director of the Africa Program, which studies African land-use planning and forest management. For Laporte, finding a way to address rising CO2 and dwindling Great Apes populations, as well as helping to improve forest management, are central to her day-to-day work. This article describes her work in Africa and how technology is helping with her research.
Woods Hole Research Center: Mapping and Monitoring the Forests of Central Africa
This web page describes the work that the Woods Hole Research Center is conducting in Africa. It includes links to video of African field work and to information on the ecology and people of Central Africa.
