Estimation of forest carbon budget from land cover change in South and North Korea between 1981 and 2010

This paper quantified carbon budget in the past 30 years (1981–2010) and identified the impact of land cover change on carbon dynamics using vegetation integrated simulator for trace gases (VISIT) model. North Korea was converted from carbon sink to source with 10.72 ± 5.18 Tg C yr −1 of net ecosystem production (NEP) in the 1980s, 3.00 ± 7.96 Tg C yr −1 in the 1990s, and −0.46 ± 5.13 Tg C yr −1 in the 2000s. NEP in South Korea was 10.55 ± 1.09 Tg C yr −1 in the 1980s, 10.47 ± 7.28 Tg C yr −1 in the 1990s, and 6.32 ± 5.02 Tg C yr −1 in the 2000s, showing a gradual decline. In North Korea, NEP was decreased by 0.52 Tg yr −1 in the 1990s due to reduction of forest, and increased by 0.36 Tg yr −1 in the 2000s due to expansion of cropland. In South Korea, it was decreased by 0.24 Tg yr −1 in the 1990s as urban and built-up area expanded, and increased by 0.04 Tg yr −1 in the 2000s with the expansion of forest. These results suggest the importance of forest and land cover management against deforestation for ensuring national carbon balance.