Indigenous people measure carbon that satellites miss

New research suggests satellite measurements undervalue the Amazon's carbon storage potential by as much as 40 percent. (Credit: Rustom Seegopaul/Flickr)



The late Kye Epps teaches Wapichana field researchers how to measure tree diameter
The late Kye Epps teaches Wapichana field researchers how to measure tree diameter, information that can then be used to calculate a tree’s biomass and carbon storage. (Credit: Han Overman)

What is carbon?


But, the first challenge was teaching people with little to no exposure to the outside world just what carbon is.

Coauthor Kimberly “Kye” Epps, a postdoctoral scholar at the Stanford University’s School of Earth Sciences (who passed away during the project), developed lesson plans to explain to the people of Guyana that all life is based on carbon, that the black charcoal from a burnt twig is primarily carbon, and how the carbon-laden smoke enters the atmosphere and ultimately affects the global climate. The plants and trees suck carbon from the atmosphere, she explained, and store it in their trunks and leaves.

“Kye’s innovative lessons helped get them to where they not only understand what carbon is, but also understand its global implications and how much they actually hold themselves on their land,” says senior author Jose Fragoso, a senior scientist in the biology department at Stanford. “When they realized its importance, they became very invested in the work.”

Next came lessons on establishing survey plots, cataloging plant species, and learning how to measure plant trunk circumferences, which is a standard measurement used to calculate biomass and thus how much carbon is contained in the plot.


Seeing what satellites miss



The difference can affect a number of different areas.


For one, it means that climate models that include blanket estimations of carbon storage in lands governed by indigenous people might be missing significant data.


“Having a good measurement of carbon storage really helps them to enter into discussions with the national government and surrounding communities,” Fragoso says. “This helps them to both prevent global climate change while also benefiting, and that is something that the people we worked with were very interested in.”


Source: Stanford University