Full title:

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CARBOAFRICA
Full title Quantification understanding and
prediction of C-cycle and other GHGs in
Sub-Saharan Africa European Commission, 6th
Framework Programme Priority 1.1.6.3 Global
Change and Ecosystems STREP (Specific Targeted
Research Project) Proposal no. 037132 Duration
3 years (01/10/06 30/09/09) Funds 2.8
M Coordinator Prof. Riccardo Valentini,
University of Tuscia (Italy) Participant
currently 15 Institutions (11 European, 3
African, FAO)
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CARBOAFRICA
Partnership
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

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CARBOAFRICA
Participant Organizations Acronym Country
Università degli Studi della Tuscia UNITUS Italy
Max-Planck-Institute of Biogeochemistry MPI-BGC Germany
Lunds universitet ULUND Sweden
Global Terrestrial Observing System, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAO-GTOS Int.
Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement CIRAD France
Natural Environment Research Council, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology NERC UK
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche CNR-IBIMET Italy
Istituto Agronomico per l'Oltremare IAO Italy
Seconda Università di Napoli DSA-SUN Italy
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research CSIR South Africa
Unité de Recherche sur la Productivité des Plantations Industrielles UR2PI Congo
Agricultural Research Technology Corporation ARC Sudan
Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique CEA France
King's College London KCL UK
University of Leicester ULEICS UK
Participants organizations currently 15
Institutions (11 European, 3 African,
FAO) soon CESBIO (Fr) will join the consortium
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CARBOAFRICA
Why CarboAfrica? Africa is a region highly
vulnerable to climate change due to both
ecological and socio-economic factors however it
is the least well-covered region by studies on
climate change.
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AFRICA CARBON EMISSION Africa's CO2 emissions
from use of fossil fuels are low in relation to
the rest of the world (3), however total
Africas emissions have been significantly
increased (about 10 times in the last 60
years). Few nations account for the bulk of the
region's fossil fuels emissions 35 Algeria,
Egypt and Nigeria (combined) 42 South Africa
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA low but increasing role!
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Land use change (fires, deforestation and
degradation, conversion to crops) is Africas
primary net source of carbon.
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Land Use Change Emissions
Africa 20 of global land use emission.
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FIRE EMISSIONS Annual global fire carbon
emissions basically unknown, c.1.5 5.0 GtC a-1
Africa 1 GtC a-1 (around 40 of worlds
emission)
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Sub-Saharan Africa and C-cycle1- dominated by
biogenic processes (linked to climate
fluctuations)2- low anthropic influence

• With low fossil fuel emissions, Africas
  continental scale carbon fluxes are dominated by
  biogenic uptake and release from terrestrial
  ecosystems, as well as fires and deforestation
  (Williams et al., 2007).

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CARBOAFRICA
Main Objectives

• To set up and coordinate a first GHGs monitoring
  network of Sub-Saharan Africa, in order to
• better quantify GHGs emissions in Sub-Saharan
  Africa (considering also fires and deforestation)
  
• better understand the role of fire emissions on
  the African GHGs balance and its global
  implications
• better understand the Africa's role in the
  global climate system
• improve the assessment of the land use change
  and evaluate the potential for carbon
  sequestration (CDM)
• promote the integration of the environmental
  dimension in the African socio-economic context.

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CARBOAFRICA
WorkPlan The work is organized in a
multi-disciplinary integrated research approach
through the division of main tasks in seven
complementary work-packages. WP1 Observation
system data integration consolidation WP2
Ecosystems processes understanding of carbon
fluxes WP3 Modelling for up-scaling to region
and continent WP4 Fire-Climate-Carbon cycle
interactions WP5 Communications and Capacity
Development WP6 Evaluation of a sustainable
carbon sequestration WP7 Project Management
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CARBOAFRICA
THE NETWORK Carbon Flux network 18 stations, of
which 2 new (including the 1st in an African
tropical forest, in Ghana) 2 Atmospheric CO2
stations Airborne campaigns (CARE experiment)
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Complexity of landscape
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CARBOAFRICA
1st Flux Tower in a African Tropical
Forest Height 72 m (around 30 m over the forest
canopy!) The information provided by this flux
station will give an important contribute to the
understanding of the Africas role in the global
carbon cycle.
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CARBOAFRICA
Ecosystems Process Understanding CarboAfrica
provides basic sites characterization through
intense field campaigns (e.g. Sudan, Ghana,
Congo, Zambia, South Africa) that are focusing
on - soil carbon properties - water relations -
plant phenology - plant eco-physiology -
exchanges of GHGs between soil and atmosphere.
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Roots exclusion technique (soil carbon)
Soil samples are taken to the laboratory all the
soil was sieved and roots were removed from the
soil cores
Half of the sampled soil are placed to the nylon
meshes with 1 mc openings and returned to the
study site (Bulk Soil Respiration Rb).
Another half of the samples are placed back
without any barriers for the roots growing (Bulk
Soil Respiration Root Respiration Rbr).
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Standard type of technique to measure N2O and CH4
soil-atmosphere gas exchange Closed chamber
Gas Chromatographic analysis

• Technique is simple
• Can be handled by with short training
• Needs many samples
• Sample shipping within few days
• Main costs associated to shipping

Gas accumulation over time
GC analysis
Gas storage
ECD, FID detectors
VIALS
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CARBOAFRICA
Aerial Optical Video
Aerial Thermal Video
CarboAfrica and Fire 1- process satellite data
and develop new algorithms to map dynamically the
African burned areas 2- quantify the African the
C emissions and the burnt biomass from fires
(FRP) and the related GHG emissions and their
regional and interannual variation 3- The fire
experiment
Post-Fire
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CARBOAFRICA
The Fire
Experiment
The trace gases emitted, the fire spread, the
Fire Radiative Energy (FRE), the smoke and fine
particles production and the fuel consumption
were measured on August 2007 in the Kruger
National Park (South Africa). The fires were
observed thought different techniques from remote
platforms (helicopter and satellite) and at
ground level (with instruments arranged along the
perimeter of the plot and oriented
downwind). This experiment will improve our
understanding of 1- the general fire process, 2-
the fires role in the climate system, 3- the
carbon and other GHGs emission form fires, 4- the
biomass consumption in fires, 5- the relation
between FRE and fuel consumption, 6- the fire
spread prediction by models, 7- the satellite
imagery interpretation.
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CARBOAFRICA
Modelling activities are foreseen to generalize
and up-scale the ecosystem level observations,
estimating carbon balance, and its temporal
variability, from local, to regional and
continental scales.
Modelling
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Daily model output expected from four
modelsBottom-up simulation by models indicate
large intra-annual and inter-annual variation in
Africa's ecosystem productivity.Both
intra-annual (seasonal cycle) and inter-annual
variability are strongly controlled by climate
fluctuations and water availability.
CARBOAFRICA
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CARBOAFRICA
CarboAfrica and Kyoto Protocol (CDM and REDD) 1-
Specific regional studies in key areas are being
conducted, considering both carbon sources and
sinks, in order to evaluate the potential for
carbon sequestration in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Training on CDM opportunities will be provided to
African stakeholders. 2- Specific researches to
evaluate the potential for reducing emissions
from avoided deforestation and forest degradation
(post Kyoto 2012) in sub-Saharan Africa will be
considered.
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Deforestation and Kyoto Protocol
AFRICA contribute about to 30 of total tropical
land clearing from deforestation
Santilli et al. 2003
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CARBOAFRICA
Communication and capacity development FAO
(through the GTOS programme) leads the
communication and capacity development
activities, dedicated to African institutions and
stakeholders, to maximise the exploitation of the
projects achievements, and promote the
integration of the environmental dimension in the
social and economic context.
For the 1st year of the project FAO and GTOS have
already implemented the project webpage
www.carboafrica.net, the list of server, the
for-monthly newsletters, and the project brochure
in English and French. Other activities are
support to African students and organization of
workshops and training courses.
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CARBOAFRICA
CarboAfrica and GEO CARBOAFRICA contributes to
the task EC-06-01 (Integrated Global Carbon
Observation, IGCO) of the GEO 2007-2009 Work
Plan, by improving the current global carbon
observing network in an underrepresented region
such as Africa. CARBOAFRICA will expand and
coordinate the African observation system of old,
current and future carbon data that will be
harmonized and standardised through a common
quality check and data processing. The data
produced by CARBOAFRICA will be made freely
available on the web.

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Looking forward CarboAfrica 2?

• 1. Expand atmospheric and in situ network to
  increase representativeness
• 2. Expand remote sensing capabilities
• (i.e. deforestation and forest degradation)
• 3. Improve water nitrogen and carbon integration
• 4. Improve socio-economic analysis of land-use
  changes
• 5. Consider also and fossil fuel maps of
  mega-cities

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CARBOAFRICA WEB

• www.carboafrica.net
• Info bombelli_at_unitus.it

THANK YOU!