Research Article

A Large and Persistent Carbon Sink in the World’s Forests

  1. Yude Pan1,*,
  2. Richard A. Birdsey1,
  3. Jingyun Fang2,3,
  4. Richard Houghton4,
  5. Pekka E. Kauppi5,
  6. Werner A. Kurz6,
  7. Oliver L. Phillips7,
  8. Anatoly Shvidenko8,
  9. Simon L. Lewis7,
  10. Josep G. Canadell9,
  11. Philippe Ciais10,
  12. Robert B. Jackson11,
  13. Stephen W. Pacala12,
  14. A. David McGuire13,
  15. Shilong Piao2,
  16. Aapo Rautiainen5,
  17. Stephen Sitch7,
  18. Daniel Hayes14
  1. 1U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Newtown Square, PA 19073, USA.
  2. 2Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing, 100871 China.
  3. 3State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093 China.
  4. 4Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, MA 02543, USA.
  5. 5University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
  6. 6Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Victoria, BC, V8Z 1M5, Canada.
  7. 7School of Geography, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
  8. 8International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria.
  9. 9Global Carbon Project, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Marine and Atmospheric Research, Canberra, Australia.
  10. 10Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement CEA-UVSQ-CNRS, Gif sur Yvette, France.
  11. 11Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
  12. 12Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
  13. 13U.S. Geological Survey, Alaska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA.
  14. 14Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA.
  1. ↵*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ypan{at}fs.fed.us
Science  19 Aug 2011:
Vol. 333, Issue 6045, pp. 988-993
DOI: 10.1126/science.1201609

You are currently viewing the abstract.

View Full Text

Via your Institution

Log in through your institution

Log in through your institution

Free with registration

Abstract

The terrestrial carbon sink has been large in recent decades, but its size and location remain uncertain. Using forest inventory data and long-term ecosystem carbon studies, we estimate a total forest sink of 2.4 ± 0.4 petagrams of carbon per year (Pg C year–1) globally for 1990 to 2007. We also estimate a source of 1.3 ± 0.7 Pg C year–1 from tropical land-use change, consisting of a gross tropical deforestation emission of 2.9 ± 0.5 Pg C year–1 partially compensated by a carbon sink in tropical forest regrowth of 1.6 ± 0.5 Pg C year–1. Together, the fluxes comprise a net global forest sink of 1.1 ± 0.8 Pg C year–1, with tropical estimates having the largest uncertainties. Our total forest sink estimate is equivalent in magnitude to the terrestrial sink deduced from fossil fuel emissions and land-use change sources minus ocean and atmospheric sinks.

View Full Text

Article Tools

  • Email
  • Download Powerpoint
  • Print
  • Save to my folders
  • Alerts

  • Citation tools

  • A Large and Persistent Carbon Sink in the World’s Forests

    By Yude Pan, Richard A. Birdsey, Jingyun Fang, Richard Houghton, Pekka E. Kauppi, Werner A. Kurz, Oliver L. Phillips, Anatoly Shvidenko, Simon L. Lewis, Josep G. Canadell, Philippe Ciais, Robert B. Jackson, Stephen W. Pacala, A. David McGuire, Shilong Piao, Aapo Rautiainen, Stephen Sitch, Daniel Hayes

    Science : 988-993

    Net average global annual uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide by forests was 1.1 petagrams of carbon, roughly one-sixth of fossil fuel emissions.

    Permalink:
    CiteULike logo Connotea logo del.icio.us logo Digg logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo Reddit logo Twitter logo

Related Content

Similar Articles in:

Citing Articles in:

Related Jobs from ScienceCareers