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Abstract

Yang, Z. and A.O. Anoruo. 2009. Carbon stock loss due to forest loss in the state of Delaware. JEMREST 6:00-00

DOI: 10.4029/2009jemrest6no117

The State of Delaware has experienced substantial land development in recent decades leading to significant loss of forest and farmland to other land uses. It is well known that forests are a tremendous reservoir of biologically sequestered carbon. Thus, it is important to understand the impact of land development on carbon stock in the State of Delaware. ArcGIS was used to obtain information on forest clearing for land development from Delaware land use and cover maps of 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007, and applied to examine temporal-spatial loss of sequestered carbon stock in the state. Biomass data was extracted from the US Forest Service Inventory and Analysis (FIA) online database and then used to compute the mean biomass. The mean biomass per unit area was then applied to derive temporal-spatial change of carbon stock in each time period as a result of forest clearing for land development. Results show that from 1992 to 2007 Delaware forests experienced significant decrease and the rate of deforestation for land development has been accelerating. It was also found that forest clearing for other land uses has significantly contributed to the forest carbon stock loss in the state.