The global carbon sink potential of terrestrial vegetation can be increased substantially by optimal land management

Abstract

Excessive emissions of greenhouse gases — of which carbon dioxide is the most significant component, are regarded as the primary reason for increased concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide and global warming. Terrestrial vegetation sequesters 112–169 PgC (1PgC = 1015g carbon) each year, which plays a vital role in global carbon recycling. Vegetation carbon sequestration varies under different land management practices. Here we propose an integrated method to assess how much more carbon can be sequestered by vegetation if optimal land management practices get implemented. The proposed method combines remotely sensed time-series of net primary productivity datasets, segmented landscape-vegetation-soil zones, and distance-constrained zonal analysis. We find that the global land vegetation can sequester an extra of 13.74 PgC per year if location-specific optimal land management practices are taken and half of the extra clusters in ~15% of vegetated areas. The finding suggests optimizing land management is a promising way to mitigate climate changes.

Feasibility of enhancing carbon sequestration and stock capacity in temperate and boreal European forests via changes to management regimes

“…As carbon fluxes do not scale linearly to stocks (Schulze et al, 2020) data analyses focused on the variables NPP and the pCWS, the sum of standing and previously harvested woody stocks. Net primary productivity can be used as good proxy for evaluating the forest net active carbon sink process (Sha et al, 2022), and the net biomass input to forest ecosystems (Trotsiuk et al, 2020), with decomposition (decay) processes representing the active carbon source process. Net primary production is a dynamic balance between photosynthesis (GPP) and plant respiration (R a ), which respond separately and/or in combination to a range of climatic factors and, in managed forests, to management practices (Collalti et al, 2020a) which are not generally amenable to in situ quantification over long periods, especially for climate change issues, hence raising the need for process-based modeling.…”

Soil geochemistry – and not topography – as a major driver of carbon allocation, stocks, and dynamics in forests and soils of African tropical montane ecosystems

“…This finding has potentially large implications in the way belowground C stocks and dynamics have to be assessed in the future. Our data show that relationships between NPP, biomass, and SOC stocks in tropical forests are more soil property driven than what is currently shown in large‐scale assessments (Del Grosso et al ., 2008; Todd‐Brown et al ., 2014; Sha et al ., 2022) or represented by inland surface models (Baartman et al ., 2018; Thum et al ., 2020) (Figs 2, 3). Our findings point at the necessity of measuring SOC stocks directly, instead of deriving them from aboveground biomass proxy data.…”

The Spatial Disequilibrium and Dynamic Evolution of the Net Agriculture Carbon Effect in China

“…Sha proposed an integrated method of assessing how much more carbon can be sequestered by vegetation if optimal land management practices are implemented. The proposed method combines remotely sensed time series of net primary productivity datasets, segmented landscapevegetation-soil zones and distance-constrained zonal analysis [14]. Lorenz focused on scientific understanding of SiC and organic carbon sequestration in agro-ecosystems [15].…”