The global carbon sink: a grassland perspective

Abstract

The challenge to identify the biospheric sinks for about half the total carbon emissions from fossil fuels must include a consideration of below‐ground ecosystem processes as well as those more easily measured above‐ground. Recent studies suggest that tropical grasslands and savannas may contribute more to the ‘missing sink’ than was previously appreciated, perhaps as much as 0.5 Pg (= 0.5 Gt) carbon per annum. The rapid increase in availability of productivity data facilitated by the Internet will be important for future scaling‐up of global change responses, to establish independent lines of evidence about the location and size of carbon sinks.

Human-induced grassland degradation/restoration in the central Tibetan Plateau: The effects of ecological protection and restoration projects

“…The grassland ecosystem as one of the world's most widespread terrestrial ecosystems, occupies approximately 13% of the earth surface (Gong et al, 2013) and holds approximately 20% of the global carbon storage (Scurlock and Hall, 1998). Changes in grasslands can further alter the carbon balance (Guidi et al, 2014), and affect the biodiversity (Gieselman et al, 2013) and food production (O'Mara, 2012).…”

Estimation and uncertainty analyses of grassland biomass in Northern China: Comparison of multiple remote sensing data sources and modeling approaches

“…With a total area of 2.38 million square kilometers of grasslands in Northern China, it accounts for 9.92% of the world's total grasslands (Fan et al, 2007;Scurlock and Hall, 1998). Accurate estimation of gross grassland biomass and its dynamics are crucial not only for the biogeochemical dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems, but also for the sustainable use of grassland resources (Luo et al, 2002).…”

“…options for spatial upscaling) (Fan et al, 2007). However, Scurlock and Hall (1998) and Ni (2002Ni ( , 2004 both concluded that a majority of previous studies probably gave inaccurate grassland biomass estimates because of limited data and approaches. Due to the large spatial heterogeneity and temporal dynamics of grassland across complex regions, the regional model simulations of grassland biomass inevitably suffered from deficiencies and uncertainties.…”

More than a century of Grain for Green Program is expected to restore soil carbon stock on alpine grassland revealed by field 13 C pulse labeling

“…Grasslands contain up to 30% of the earth's soil carbon (C) (Scurlock and Hall, 1998). Soil C losses caused by land use/cover changes including cultivation of grasslands are the second greatest source of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (IPCC, 2013), with C losses ranging from 36% to 85% depending on the nature of the original grassland, soil depth, management, age after conversion, and climate (Conant et al, 2001;Guo and Gifford, 2002;Machmuller et al, 2015;Post and Kwon, 2000;Wang et al, 2011).…”