Abstract
Land cover and land use change (LCLUC) is a significant contributor to the changes in biomass carbon emissions. The state of Arkansas in the U.S.A. has experienced LCLUC over last five decades. This study combined geographic information system (GIS), remote sensing, and spatiotemporal analysis to quantify changes in vegetation carbon storage resulting from LCLUC during 2001–2019. The result showed that there were fluctuating changes among all land cover land use types, while the significant transition occurred mainly between forest and grassland. From 2001 to 2011, there were ~1973.8 km2 forest gain, mostly contributed from grassland/shrubland (~1448.8 km2), followed by farmland (~489.5 km2). The ~ 3575.3 km2 of forest was mainly changed into grassland/shrubland (~3343.4 km2) and built-up land (114.0 km2), leading to a net loss of ~1601.5 km2 in forest during this 10-year period. Similarly, the changes of grassland/shrubland, farmland, and built-up land with forest resulted in ~493.1 km2 net gain in forest from 2011 to 2019. During the process, a total of ~1.3 million tC biomass carbon was lost over the past 18 years in Arkansas, which is largely because of forest loss. However, due to the regrowth of trees, Arkansas also witnessed carbon gain during some periods. The spatiotemporal change of carbon storage and its drivers revealed by this study provide an important scientific basis for sustainable land use planning in Arkansas.
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The NLCD dataset was downloaded from https://www.mrlc.gov/data.
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Acknowledgements
This study is supported by University Research Council Grant and Faculty Development Competitive Grant at the University of Central Arkansas to Yaqian He and Southwestern Energy Research Fellow to Weilun Tay.
Funding
This study is funded by University Research Council Grant and Faculty Development Competitive Grant at the University of Central Arkansas to Yaqian He and Southwestern Energy Research Fellow to Weilun Tay.
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YH conceived the study. WT conducted the analysis. YH and WT interpreted and visualized the results. WT wrote the first draft of the manuscript with guidance from YH. YH and WT revised the manuscript.
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Tay, W., He, Y. Detecting land cover and land use change and its impact on biomass carbon emission from 2001 to 2019 in Arkansas, U.S.A. Biogeochemistry 165, 29–42 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-023-01042-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-023-01042-x