Science to Commerce: A Commercial-Scale Protocol for Carbon Trading Applied to a 28-Year Record of Forest Carbon Monitoring at the Harvard Forest

Land

J.William Munger¹  BrunoD. V. Marino²  Nahuel Bautista³ 

[1] Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA;Executive Management, Planetary Emissions Management Inc., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA;Planetary Emissions Management Inc., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA;

关键词: commercial eddy covariance;    daytime ecosystem respiration;    forest carbon sequestration;    Harvard Forest;    NEE;    t¹³C¹⁶O₂;   

DOI  :  10.3390/land10020163

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Forest carbon sequestration offset protocols have been employed for more than 20 years with limited success in slowing deforestation and increasing forest carbon trading volume. Direct measurement of forest carbon flux improves quantification for trading but has not been applied to forest carbon research projects with more than 600 site installations worldwide. In this study, we apply carbon accounting methods, scaling hours to decades to 28-years of scientific CO₂ eddy covariance data for the Harvard Forest (US-Ha1), located in central Massachusetts, USA, establishing commercial carbon trading protocols and applications for similar sites. We illustrate and explain transactions of high-frequency direct measurement for CO₂ net ecosystem exchange (NEE, gC m⁻² year⁻¹) that track and monetize ecosystem carbon dynamics in contrast to approaches that rely on forest mensuration and growth models. NEE, based on eddy covariance methodology, quantifies loss of CO₂ by ecosystem respiration accounted for as an unavoidable debit to net carbon sequestration. Retrospective analysis of the US-Ha1 NEE times series including carbon pricing, interval analysis, and ton-year exit accounting and revenue scenarios inform entrepreneur, investor, and landowner forest carbon commercialization strategies. CO₂ efflux accounts for ~45% of US-Ha1 NEE, or an error of ~466% if excluded; however, the decades-old coupled human and natural system remains a financially viable net carbon sink. We introduce isoflux NEE for t¹³C¹⁶O₂ and t¹²C¹⁸O¹⁶O to directly partition and quantify daytime ecosystem respiration and photosynthesis, creating new soil carbon commerce applications and derivative products in contrast to undifferentiated bulk soil carbon pool approaches. Eddy covariance NEE methods harmonize and standardize carbon commerce across diverse forest applications including, a New England, USA regional eddy covariance network, the Paris Agreement, and related climate mitigation platforms.

【 授权许可】

Unknown