Global land and carbon mapping

Understanding the distribution of land and terrestrial carbon across space and timeis vital to helping navigate climate change and identify solutionsto preserve carbon stocks, protect biodiversity, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural, forestry, and other land use sectors. GLUE researchers have developed some of the world’s leading datasets on global degraded land locations, above-and belowground biomass carbon stocks, and other land and carbon products. Our team, collaborators, and scientists around the world use these data help inform analyses of sustainable agricultural development, conservation, and Natural Climate Solutions, among other applications.

Publications
Gibbs, H. K. and J. M. Salmon. 2015. “Mapping the world’s degraded land.” Applied Geography 57: 12-21 [Link]
Spawn, S.A., C. Sullivan, T. J. Lark, and H. K. Gibbs. 2020. “Harmonized global maps of above and below ground biomass carbon density in the year 2010.” Nature Scientific Data. [Link]
Lambin, E. F., H. K. Gibbs, L. Ferreira, R. Grau, P. Mayaux, P. Meyfroidt, D. C. Morton, T. Rudel, I. Gasparri, and J. Munger. 2013. “Estimating the world’s potentially available cropland using a bottom-up approach.” Global Environmental Change 23(5): 892-901 [Abstract] [Link]
Gibbs, H. K., S. Brown, J. O. Niles, and J. A. Foley. 2007. “Monitoring and measuring tropical forest carbon stocks: Making REDD a reality.” Environmental Research Letters 2(4): 045023 [Abstract] [Link]
Spawn, S.A., T.J. Lark, and H. K. Gibbs. 2019. “Carbon emissions from cropland expansion in the United States.” Environmental Research Letters. [Link]
Strassburg, B., A. Balmford, J. Price, R. Davies, H. K. Gibbs, D. Orme, L. Miles, and A. Kelly. 2010. “Global Congruence of Carbon Storage and Biodiversity in Terrestrial Ecosystems.” Conservation Letters 3(2): 98-105 [Abstract] [Link]
Drever CR, et al.(38 authors including TJ Lark and SA Spawn-Lee). 2021.Natural Climate Solutions for Canada. Science Advances. [Link]
Fargione, Joseph E., S. Bassett, T. Boucher , S. D. Bridgham , R. T. Conant , S. C. Cook-Patton , P. W. Ellis, A. Falcucci , J. W. Fourqurean , T. Gopalakrishna , H. Gu, B. Henderson, M. D. Hurteau, K. D. Kroeger, T. Kroeger , T. J. Lark, S. M. Leavitt , G. Lomax, R. I. McDonald, J. P. Megonigal, D. A. Miteva, C.J. Richardson, J. Sanderman, D. Shoch, S. A. Spawn, J. W. Veldman, C. A. Williams, P. B. Woodbury, C. Zganjar, M. Baranski, P. Elias, R. A. Houghton, E. Landis, E. McGlynn, W. H. Schlesinger, J. V. Siikamaki, A. E. Sutton-Grier, and B. W. Griscom. 2018. “Natural climate solutions for the United States.” Science Advances. [Abstract] [Link]
Soto-Navarro C., C. Ravilious, X. de Lamo, A. Arnell, M. Harfoot, S. Hill, O.R. Wearn, M. Santoro, A. Bouvet, S. Mermox, T. Le Toan, J. Xia, W. Yuan, S.A Spawn, H. K. Gibbs, Ferrier, T. Harwood, R. Alkemade, A. Schipper, L. Miles, N.D. Burgess, and V. Kapos. 2020. “Mapping co-benefits for carbon storage and biodiversity to inform conservation policy and action.” Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences.[Link]
Goldstein, A., W. R. Turner, S. A. Spawn, K. J. Anderson-Teixeira, S. Cook-Patton, J. Fargione, H. K. Gibbs, B. Griscom, J. H. Hewson, J. F. Howard, J. C. Ledezma, S. Page, L. P. Koh, J. Rockström, J. Sanderman, and D. Hole. 2020. “Protecting irrecoverable carbon in Earth’s ecosystems.” Nature Climate Change. [Link]
West, P. H. K. Gibbs, J. A. Foley, C. Barford, and J. Wagner. 2010. “Trading carbon for food: global comparison of carbon storage vs. crop yields on agricultural land.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 107(46): 19645-19648 [Abstract] [Link]
Foley, J. A., R. S. DeFries, G. P. Asner, C. Barford, G. Bonan, S. R. Carpenter, F. Stuart Chapin, M. T. Coe, G. C. Daily, H. K. Gibbs, J. H. Helkowski, T. Holloway, E. A. Howard, C. J. Kucharik, C. Monfreda, J. A. Patz, I. C. Prentice, N. Ramankutty, and P. K. Snyder. 2005. “Global Consequences of Land Use.” Science 309(5734): 570-574 [Abstract] [Link]
Gibbs, H. K., S. Yui, and R. Plevin. 2014. “New Estimates of Soil and Biomass Carbon Stocks for Global Economic Models: Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) Technical Paper No. 33.” Center for Global Trade Analysis, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University. West Lafayette, IN. [Abstract] [Link]
R. Plevin, H.K. Gibbs, J. Duffy, S. Yui andS. Yeh. 2014. Agro-ecological zone emission factor model. Global Trade and Analysis Project (GTAP) Refereed Technical Paper Series.
Ramankutty, N., H. K. Gibbs, F. Achard, R. DeFries, J. A. Foley, and R. A. Houghton. 2007. “Challenges in estimating carbon emissions from tropical deforestation.” Global Change Biology 13(1): 51-66 [Abstract] [Link]