U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2009–3102

November 2009

U.S. Geological Survey Methodology Development for 

Ecological Carbon Assessment and Monitoring

Printed on recycled paper

Ecological carbon sequestration refers to transfer and storage 

of atmospheric carbon in vegetation, soils, and aquatic environments to help offset the net increase from carbon emissions. 

Understanding capacities, associated opportunities, and risks 

of vegetated ecosystems to sequester carbon provides science 

information to support formulation of policies governing 

climate change mitigation, adaptation, and land-management 

strategies. Section 712 of the Energy Independence and Security 

Act (EISA) of 2007 mandates the Department of the Interior to 

develop a methodology and assess the capacity of our nation’s 

ecosystems for ecological carbon sequestration and greenhouse 

gas (GHG) flux mitigation. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 

LandCarbon Project is responding to the Department of 

Interior’s request to develop a methodology that meets specific 

EISA requirements.

Requirements of EISA

In response to requirements of EISA Section 712 the USGS is 

developing a methodology to: 

• Assess the nation’s ecosystems for carbon stocks and 

rates of sequestration under baseline and potential 

climate, policy, and land-management scenarios.

• Assess the nation’s ecosystems for fluxes of three 

GHGs: carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane 

under baseline and potential climate, policy, and 

land-management scenarios.

• Provide science data to inform development of 

ecosystem mitigation and adaptation strategies.

• Address land-use changes, effects of disturbances 

such as wildland fires, and monitoring needs.

U.S. Geological Survey Response to EISA 

The project approach is to use the best science and available 

data, leverage existing capabilities, and follow established 

science practices to deliver a validated and peer-reviewed 

methodology. In meeting the legislative requirements, the 

USGS relies on an interagency and interdisciplinary science 

team with expertise in ecosystem ecology, aquatic ecology, 

biogeochemical cycles and modeling, land-use change 

modeling, ecosystem-disturbance modeling, economic and 

policy analysis, remote sensing, and statistics.

The project team consults the scientific community and partner 

Federal agencies (for example, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 

Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, and 

the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). The 

team also collaborates with both governmental and 

nongovernmental organizations. A draft of the methodology 

will be delivered by summer 2010.

Global carbon cycle showing the main annual fluxes in Gt C yr -1: 

preindustrial “natural” fluxes are in black and “human” fluxes are 

in red. The USGS methodology will focus both on terrestrial- (forest, 

cropland, shrubland, grassland, and urban) and aquatic- (river, lake, 

coast, and wetland) carbon stores and fluxes (Solomon and others, 

2007).
Reference Cited

Solomon, S., Qin, D., Manning, M., Chen, Z., Marquis, 

M., Averyt, K.B., Tignor, M., and Miller, H.L., eds., 

2007, Climate change 2007: The physical science basis—

Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment 

Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: 

Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 996 p., accessed 

November 16, 2009, at http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_

and_data/publications_ipcc_fourth_assessment_report_

wg1_report_the_physical_science_basis.htm.

Major Elements of the Methodology 

The USGS LandCarbon project team is developing an 

operational methodology to provide a comprehensive 

national assessment of baseline and potential carbon pools 

and GHG fluxes. To accomplish this task, the team will:

• Define ecosystem-reporting units for the national 

assessment. Baseline and potential carbonsequestration characteristics and GHG fluxes for 

major vegetation types will be summarized within 

the reporting units.

• Use Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 

future climate trajectories and scenarios to define 

and model baseline and potential carbon 

sequestration and GHG fluxes.

• Develop and refine spatially explicit land- and 

ecosystem-simulation models as well as statistical 

methods to produce carbon and GHG estimates.

• Develop and refine data assimilation methods that 

integrate remotely sensed data and information 

from national inventory programs and flux towers 

with modeled data to improve consistency and 

accuracy of results.

• Define ecosystem monitoring goals and plans to 

ensure that policy makers and land managers are 

informed of ecological integrity of the nation’s 

lands, including but not limited to ecosystem 

carbon sequestration capacities, other ecosystem 

services, and potential ecological risks.

The USGS LandCarbon methodology framework showing the main inputs, 

models and analysis, and products: “BGC” refers to biogeochemical 

cycles and “GIS” refers to geographic information systems.

Policy and landmanagement

analysis

Land-use

change

modeling

• Terrestrial and

 aquatic BGC

 science

• Data analysis, 

 assimilation

 capabilities

Ecosystem

disturbance

modeling

Carbon and

GHG flux

modeling

User-driven GIS

maps, reports,

tables, and charts

Scenarios, input

data, and model

parameters

For additional information contact: Zhiliang Zhu, 

USGS, National Center, Reston, VA, zzhu@usgs.gov, 

(703-648-4243)