The carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems in China
China's carbon balance The publication of a comprehensive assessment of China's terrestrial carbon budget fills a major gap in the geographical spread of carbon balance data, and helps to further reduce uncertainties in the Northern Hemisphere carbon balance. Three different indicators wer...
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Veröffentlicht in: | Nature 2009-04, Vol.458 (7241), p.1009-1013 |
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Zusammenfassung: | China's carbon balance
The publication of a comprehensive assessment of China's terrestrial carbon budget fills a major gap in the geographical spread of carbon balance data, and helps to further reduce uncertainties in the Northern Hemisphere carbon balance. Three different indicators were used to monitor China's carbon balance and its driving mechanisms during the 1980s and 1990s: biomass and soil carbon inventories extrapolated from satellite greenness measurements, ecosystem models and atmospheric inversions. The three methods produce similar estimates for the net carbon sink at 0.19 to 0.26 petagrams per year. Global terrestrial ecosystems, in comparison, have absorbed carbon at a rate of 1 to 4 Pg carbon per year during the 1980s and 1990s, which offsets 10–60% of fossil fuel emissions. Northeast China is a net source of CO
2
to the atmosphere as a result over-harvesting and degradation of forests. In contrast, southern China accounts for over 65% of the carbon sink, attributable to regional climate change, tree planting and shrub recovery.
This paper analyses the terrestrial carbon balance of China during the 1980s and 1990s using biomass and soil carbon inventories extrapolated by satellite greenness measurements, ecosystem models and atmospheric inversions. These three methods produce similar estimates of a net sink of 0.19–0.26 billion tonnes of carbon per year, indicating that China absorbed 28–37 per cent of its fossil carbon emissions over these two decades, mainly attributable to regional climate change, large-scale plantation programmes and shrub recovery.
Global terrestrial ecosystems absorbed carbon at a rate of 1–4 Pg yr
-1
during the 1980s and 1990s, offsetting 10–60 per cent of the fossil-fuel emissions
1
,
2
. The regional patterns and causes of terrestrial carbon sources and sinks, however, remain uncertain
1
,
2
,
3
. With increasing scientific and political interest in regional aspects of the global carbon cycle, there is a strong impetus to better understand the carbon balance of China
1
,
2
,
3
. This is not only because China is the world’s most populous country and the largest emitter of fossil-fuel CO
2
into the atmosphere
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, but also because it has experienced regionally distinct land-use histories and climate trends
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, which together control the carbon budget of its ecosystems. Here we analyse the current terrestrial carbon balance of China and its driving mechanisms during the 1980s and 1990s using three different methods: |
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ISSN: | 0028-0836 1476-4687 1476-4679 |
DOI: | 10.1038/nature07944 |