The long-term stressful utilization of forests and grasslands has led to ecosystem degradation and C loss. Since the late 1970s China has launched six key national ecological restoration projects to protect its environment and restore degraded ecosystems. Here, we conducted a large-scale field investigation and a literature survey of biomass and soil C in China's forest, shrubland, and grassland ecosystems across the regions where the six projects were implemented (∼16% of the country's land area). We investigated the changes in the C stocks of these ecosystems to evaluate the contributions of the projects to the country's C sink between 2001 and 2010. Over this decade, we estimated that the total annual C sink in the project region was 132 Tg C per y (1 Tg = 10 g), over half of which (74 Tg C per y, 56%) was attributed to the implementation of the projects. Our results demonstrate that these restoration projects have substantially contributed to CO mitigation in China.

S U M M A R YThis paper studies the potential and gravity changes caused by dislocations in spherically symmetric earth models. We define dislocation Love numbers to describe the elastic deformation of the earth raised by point sources. We discuss the shear and tensile dislocations, which can be expressed by four independent components: a vertical strike-slip, a vertical dip-slip, a tensile opening on a horizontal plane, and a tensile opening on a vertical plane.The results for a homogeneous earth model agree very well, at least within lo, with those predicted from flat-earth theory. The far-field results indicate no larger than 10per cent difference within 10". It makes little difference whether we use the theory on a sphere or that for a flat earth in the near field, while it is reasonable t o use the spherical theory for global calculation. We proceed to calculations with a radially heterogeneous earth model (Model 1066A). The results are as a whole similar to those for a homogeneous sphere. In some cases, however, the difference between the two becomes significant. For example, the locations of the nodal lines of the gravity change differ significantly between the two models. This indicates that the vertical layering can cause considerable effects on the deformation fields.

S U M M A R YBased on the authors' previous work, co-seismic deformations for a spherical symmetric earth model are summarized and reformulated. Unified expressions presented herein accommodate physical deformations: displacement, potential, gravity, geoid and strain changes. The corresponding Green's functions are derived by combining spheroidal and toroidal deformations. Sign errors in previous publications are corrected in these new formulas. These expressions are developed basically for a deformed earth surface because most traditional geodetic measurements are performed on the terrain surface. However, through development of space geodetic techniques, such as the satellite gravity missions, co-seismic gravity changes can be detected from space. In this case, the above dislocation theory (e.g., the co-seismic gravity change) cannot be applied directly to the observed data because the data do not include surface crustal deformation (the free air gravity change). Correspondingly, the contribution by the vertical displacement part must be removed from the traditional expressions. For this purpose, we present the corresponding expressions applicable to space observations. Some numerical technical problems are discussed. In addition, a smoothing technique is necessary to damp the high-frequency contribution so that the theory can be applied reasonably. Global co-seismic deformations caused by the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake (M9.3) are studied as an application of the new Green's function. That earthquake caused a global deformation detected by GPS, strain metres and even a satellite gravity mission. These global deformations are calculated based on the derived Green's functions and the seismic-wave derived earth model. A segment-summation scheme is used considering the slip distribution on a limited fault plane. The results are useful for interpreting observed deformations, especially those in the far field. The earthquake reveals global co-seismic deformations and effects of spherical curvature and the earth's layered structure. Comparisons between results for a spherical earth mode and a half-space model show a large discrepancy at an epicentral distance of about 1000 km, implying that effects of spherical curvature and layer structure are considerably large. In addition, the theoretical results are compared with the real observed strain steps, horizontal displacements and gravity changes caused by that earthquake. Good agreement validates the results of the current theoretical work. Finally, we discuss the application the above theory to the GRACE data through several case studies.

In this paper, 10 years of time-variable gravity data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Release 05 have been used to evaluate the glacier melting rate in high-mountain Asia (HMA) using a new computing scheme, i.e., the Space Domain Inverse method. We find that in HMA area, there are three different kinds of signal sources that should be treated together. The two generally accepted sources, glacier melting and India underground water depletion, are estimated to change at the rate of À35.0 ± 5.8 Gt/yr (0.09 mm/yr sea level rising) and À30.6 ± 5.0 Gt/yr, respectively. The third source is the remarkable positive signal (+30 Gt/yr) in the inner Tibetan Plateau, which is challenging to explain. Further, we have found that there is a 5 year undulation in Pamir and Karakoram, which can explain the controversies of the previous studies on the glacier melting rate here. This 5 year signal can be explained by the influence of Arctic Oscillation and El Niño-Southern Oscillation.

[1] Agricultural soils hold potential for the expansion of carbon sequestration. With this in mind, we investigated changes in the soil organic carbon (SOC) on the basis of an analysis of data sets extracted from 146 publications and further projected the SOC sequestration potential in China's cropland. Our results suggest that a significant increase in the SOC occurred in east and north China, while a decrease appeared in northeast China. As a whole, the organic carbon density in the topsoil to 30 cm depth increased by 3.36 (2.54 to 4.26) Mg/ha between 1980 and 2000. Accordingly, the croplands in China that cover an area of over 130 Mha sequestered 437 (331 to 555) Tg C, with an average rate of 21.9 (16.6 to 27.8) Tg/yr, during this period. The potential of SOC sequestration in China was estimated to be 2-2.5 Pg C, which could be achieved by the 2050s if crop production and field management are improved.

With high-resolution continuous gravity recordings from a regional network of superconducting gravimeters, we have detected permanent changes in gravity acceleration associated with a recent large earthquake. Detected changes in gravity acceleration are smaller than 10(-8) meters seconds(-2) (1 micro-Galileo, about 10(-9) times the surface gravity acceleration) and agree with theoretical values calculated from a dislocation model. Superconducting gravimetry can contribute to the studies of secular gravity changes associated with tectonic processes.

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Calderas are ubiquitous topographic features of volcanos, yet caldera formation itself has not been recorded intensively by modern measurement techniques. Here we report the spatiotemporal gravity changes before and after caldera collapse at the Miyakejima volcano, Japan in 2000. A gravity decrease of as much as 145 μGal (1 μGal = 10−8 m/s2) at the summit area since June 1998 was detected 2 days prior to the collapse, interpreted as reflecting the formation of a large void beneath the volcano. Gravity changes detected after the initiation of collapse can mostly be corrected by the effect of collapsed topography, from which a rapid rate of collapse of more than 1.6 × 107 m3/d can be inferred. Correcting for the effect of topography change, we identified a temporal decrease in gravity from the middle of July to late August despite ground subsidence. The gravity decrease is interpreted as a reduction of the density in a cylindrical conduit, attributed to water inflow from an ambient aquifer that also promoted intensive magma‐water interaction and subsequent explosive eruptions. From September to at least November 2000, gravity values at all sites increased significantly by a degree that cannot be explained by ground displacement alone. We interpret this temporal evolution as primarily due to magma ascent and refilling of the conduit.