Carbon Storage and Sequestration Carbon Pools

Software Support
1

Hello, I have a question about the values to enter for the following inputs:

c_above: Carbon density of aboveground biomass.
c_below: Carbon density of belowground biomass.
c_dead: Carbon density of dead matter.

I currently have access to two data sources, however carbon values are reported in two different ways. I would like to know how to enter my values into InVEST models appropriately for each dataset.

Dataset 1: Data is reported separately for carbon density of aboveground biomass and carbon density of belowground biomass but I do not have access to carbon density of dead matter.

Example of what I was planning of trying:
c_above: [dataset value]
c_below: [dataset value]
c_dead: 0

Question: Since I don’t have the values for the carbon density of dead matter, can I just put ‘0’?

Dataset 2: Data is reported for carbon density of aboveground biomass, carbon density of belowground biomass, and carbon density of dead matter together. I am not able to differentiate each type of carbon, they’re all reported into one value.

Example of what I was planning on trying:
c_above: [dataset value]
c_below: 0
c_dead: 0

Question: Since the carbon value is not reported separately, I wonder if it’s acceptable for me to use this dataset in InVEST in this manner. Could I, for example, enter the value obtained from the dataset for ‘c_above’ and put a ‘0’ to the two other inputs while acknowledging that other values are already integrated into the data put in ‘c_above’?

I would like to know based on your experiences, what would be the best approach to consider.

Thank you so much!

2 Likes
2

Welcome to the forum @jonathan.pierre -

Both of your examples are correct ways of entering the information that you have. If you do not have values for a particular carbon pool, you should put 0s, since the model requires that a value be provided for each pool and each land cover type in that table. You didn’t mention c_soil, so if you don’t have data for that pool, make sure to enter 0s for that column too.

Question: Since the carbon value is not reported separately, I wonder if it’s acceptable for me to use this dataset in InVEST in this manner. Could I, for example, enter the value obtained from the dataset for ‘c_above’ and put a ‘0’ to the two other inputs while acknowledging that other values are already integrated into the data put in ‘c_above’?

Yes, this works fine.

~ Stacie

3

Thanks for the prompt reply :slight_smile:

I do have soil data to input on the c_soil, so I should be fine on that end. I will give a try to the second approach!

Jonathan

4

Hi there,
I am also doing a research on InVest and I am currently trying to use NLCD dataset which is lastly updated 2019. If I want to make some changes to part of the data e.g. a small area that is interesting, what’s the correct way to do it, is it to change the attribute table or modify the c_below and c_above value for each time? Thanks!

5

Hi @jmszy, I think we have another post handling your questions, so I’m going to close this thread.