Carbon Management

Author(s):

Richter, D. deB., and R.A. Houghton

Journal or Book Title: Carbon Management

Volume/Issue: 2

Page Number(s): 1-7

Year Published: 2011

Abstract:

The role of land use in the global carbon cycle involves both CO2 sources (e.g., as forest land is converted to
agricultural uses) and CO2 sinks (as vegetation regrows following land disturbance). While land-use change
contributions to the carbon cycle have been mainly evaluated using net emissions of CO2, we estimated
gross emissions and gross sinks of CO2 from land-use change via global and regional simulations with a
widely used carbon-cycle model. Gross fluxes are large; for example, the gross CO2 sources from land-use
change amount to 4.3 PgC year-1 or more than 55% of emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement
manufacture. The airborne fraction is therefore estimated to be approximately 34% of total CO2 emissions
(i.e., fossil fuel plus land-use). Since land-use conversions and abandonment differ regionally, gross sources
and sinks provide strong support for extensive land protection and land-use management strategies to
reduce atmospheric CO2.

DOI: 10.4155/CMT.10.43

Type of Publication: Journal Article

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