index.Rmd

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# Global Forest Carbon Database (ForC)
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The global Forest Carbon database (ForC) is an open access database compiled and maintained by [Dr. Kristina Anderson-Teixeira's Ecosystems & Climate Lab](https://sites.google.com/site/forestecoclimlab/home) at the Smithsonian. 

ForC is the largest database of ground-based measurements of forest ecosytsem carbon stocks and annual fluxes. It contains supplementary data including site information, stand ages, and disturbance history. All data were obtained from published, peer-reviewed sources, as detailed in [Anderson-Teixeira et al. (2016)](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.13226/abstract) and [Anderson-Teixeira et al. (2018)](https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.2229).

ForC is updated and maintained in [this Github repository](https://github.com/forc-db/ForC) and may be visualized using our [interactive Shiny app](https://forc.shinyapps.io/global_data_visualization/). 

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#### 39,762 records  |  10,608 plots  |  1,532  distinct geographic areas

![**Geographical distributions of sites included in ForC-db.** Symbols are colored according to the number of records from each site. Underlying map shows coverage of evergreen, deciduous, and mixed forests (from SYNMAP; Jung et al. 2006) and biogeographic zones (Olson et al. 2001). Distribution of sites, plots, and records among biogeographic zones is shown in the inset.](https://github.com/forc-db/ForC/blob/master/figures/World_Map_with_Biogeographic_regions_and_sites.png?raw=true)


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### Funding 
* DOE Terrestrial Ecosystem Science grant DE-SC0008085/ DE-SC0010039 to Kristina Anderson-Teixeira, Evan DeLucia, and Benjamin Duval

* Smithsonian Women's Committee grant to Kristina Anderson-Teixeira

* Smithsonian Scholarly Studies grant to Kristina Anderson-Teixeira and Helene Muller-Landau