Recent patterns and mechanisms of carbon exchange by terrestrial ecosystems

By D. Schimel, J. House, K. Hibbard, P. Bousquet, Philippe Ciais, P. Peylin, B. Braswell, M. Apps, David P. Baker, A. Bondeau and 20 more. Nature, 2001

1,390 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Knowledge of carbon exchange between the atmosphere, land and the oceans is important, given that the terrestrial and marine environments are currently absorbing about half of the carbon dioxide that is emitted by fossil-fuel combustion. This carbon uptake is therefore limiting the extent of atmospheric and climatic change, but its long-term nature remains uncertain. Here we provide an overview of the current state of knowledge of global and regional patterns of carbon exchange by terrestrial ecosystems. Atmospheric carbon dioxide and oxygen data confirm that the terrestrial biosphere was largely neutral with respect to net carbon exchange during the 1980s, but became a net carbon sink in the 1990s. This recent sink can be largely attributed to northern extratropical areas, and is roughly split between North America and Eurasia. Tropical land areas, however, were approximately in balance with respect to carbon exchange, implying a carbon sink that offset emissions due to tropical deforestation. The evolution of the terrestrial carbon sink is largely the result of changes in land use over time, such as regrowth on abandoned agricultural land and fire prevention, in addition to responses to environmental changes, such as longer growing seasons, and fertilization by carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Nevertheless, there remain considerable uncertainties as to the magnitude of the sink in different regions and the contribution of different processes.

Subfields: Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ad555ed3eacafc4c3f139c0851fd8ba5e42f2a3a

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Global and Planetary Change

Citations in the corpus

Linking the global carbon cycle to individual metabolism (2005, background): “Although the steady-state assumption is often violated in nature (Schimel et al .”
Effects of biological invasions on forest carbon sequestration (2010, background): “…have generated intense debate in scientific and policy arenas, and produced a rapidly developing literature, particularly on carbon dioxide (CO2) enrichment, land use change, nitrogen (N) deposition and climate change (Schimel et al., 2001; Wardle, 2002; Wright, 2005; De Vries et al., 2006).”
Momentum Transfer within Canopies (2008, background): “…some of the most important environmental challenges facing humankind, including perturbations to the global carbon cycle, the introduction of pollutants into the atmosphere, and the transfer of water from soil and vegetation to the atmosphere (Schimel et al. 2001; Vitousek et al. 1997; Wofsy 2001).”
The carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems in China (2009, background): “Lateral fluxes include (1) carbon fixed by photosynthesis but returned to the atmosphere by non-CO2 compounds, that is, emissions of CO, CH4 and volatile organic compounds (VOCs); (2) carbon associated with the fate of wood and food products; and (3) carbon exported from ecosystems by rivers.”
Dynamic global vegetation modelling: quantifying terrestrial ecosystem responses to large-scale environmental change (2007, background): “The land biosphere therefore plays a dynamic role in the global carbon cycle on time scales relevant to human activities (Prentice et al. 2001; Schimel et al. 2001; Field et al. 2004).”
Outgassing from Amazonian rivers and wetlands as a large tropical source of atmospheric CO2 (2002, background): “Whereas global estimates of atmospheric CO 2 exchange indicate that the tropics are near equilibrium or are a source with respect to carbon”
Convergence across biomes to a common rain-use efficiency (2004, background): “There is a compelling need to understand how terrestrial ecosystems respond to precipitation and other external drivers to permit the forecasting of potential biosphere feedback to natural and anthropogenic changes in the climate syste”
Large herbivores limit CO2 uptake and suppress carbon cycle responses to warming in West Greenland (2011, background): “, 2009), it is essential that we improve our understanding of the physical and biologic controls on carbon (C) cycling because of the potential for northern ecosystem C uptake to ameliorate anthropogenic CO2 enrichment of the atmosphere (Schimel et al., 2001).”
Evaluation of terrestrial carbon cycle models for their response to climate variability and to CO2 trends (2013, neutral): “The terrestrial carbon cycle has been modeled to be particularly sensitive to current and future climate and atmospheric CO2 changes, but regional patterns and mechanisms of terrestrial carbon sources and sinks remain uncertain (Schimel et al., 2001; Houghton, 2007).”
Soil erosion and the global carbon budget. (2003, background): “With 20% emission due to mineralization of the displaced C, erosioninduced emission may be 0.8–1.2 Pg C/year on the earth.”
Darkness visible: reflections on underground ecology (2005, neutral): “Many of the great ecological disasters in history occurred when inappropriate farming techniques were applied to fragile soils, a well known example being the dust-bowl of the American mid-west that inspired John Steinbeck’s classic novel The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck 1939).”
Biological control of the terrestrial carbon sink (2005, methodology): “Based on data in the IPCC (2002), Schimel et al. (2001) summarized the global C-budget and regional sinks (Table 1).”