Sustainability of terrestrial carbon sequestration: A case study in Duke Forest with inversion approach
- 6 March 2003
- journal article
- Published by American Geophysical Union (AGU) in Global Biogeochemical Cycles
- Vol. 17 (1)
Abstract
A sound understanding of the sustainability of terrestrial carbon (C) sequestration is critical for the success of any policies geared toward stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse concentrations. This includes the Kyoto Protocol and/or other greenhouse strategies implemented by individual countries. However, the sustainability of C sinks and pools has not been carefully studied with either empirical or theoretical approaches. This study was intended to develop a conceptual framework to define the sustainability based on C influx and residence time (τ). The latter τ quantifies the capacity for C storage in various plant and soil pools. We estimated τ via inverse analysis of multiple data sets from a Free‐Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) experiment in Duke Forest, North Carolina, United States. This study suggested that estimated residence times at elevated CO2 decreased for plant C pools and increased for litter and soil pools in comparison to those at ambient CO2. The ensemble of the residence times from all the pools at elevated CO2, however, was well correlated with that at ambient CO2. We then used the estimated residence times, combined with C influx, to simulate C sequestration rates in response to a gradual increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration (Ca). The simulated C sequestration rate gradually increased from 69 g m−2 yr−1 in 2000 when Ca was 378 ppm to 201 g m−2 yr−1 in 2100 when Ca was at 710 ppm. Thus, the current evidence from both experimental observations and inverse analysis suggested that C sequestration in the forest ecosystem was likely to increase gradually as Ca gradually increases. The model projection of the C sequestration will improve as more data on long‐term processes become available in coming years. In addition, such a modeled increase in terrestrial C sequestration is too small to balance the anthropogenic C emission.Keywords
This publication has 48 references indexed in Scilit:
- Steady state turnover time of carbon in the Australian terrestrial biosphereGlobal Biogeochemical Cycles, 2002
- Carbon balance of the terrestrial biosphere in the Twentieth Century: Analyses of CO2, climate and land use effects with four process‐based ecosystem modelsGlobal Biogeochemical Cycles, 2001
- FOREST LITTER PRODUCTION, CHEMISTRY, AND DECOMPOSITION FOLLOWING TWO YEARS OF FREE-AIR CO2ENRICHMENTEcology, 2001
- EFFECTS OF FREE-AIR CO2ENRICHMENT (FACE) ON BELOWGROUND PROCESSES IN APINUS TAEDAFORESTEcological Applications, 2000
- The photosynthesis – leaf nitrogen relationship at ambient and elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide: a meta‐analysisGlobal Change Biology, 1999
- Contrasting patterns of biomass allocation in dominant and suppressed loblolly pineCanadian Journal of Forest Research, 1998
- The significance of differences in the mechanisms of photosynthetic acclimation to light, nitrogen and CO2 for return on investment in leavesFunctional Ecology, 1998
- Targets for Stabilization of Atmospheric CO 2Science, 1997
- Sensitivity of leaf photosynthesis to CO2 concentration is an invariant function for C3 plants: A test with experimental data and global applicationsGlobal Biogeochemical Cycles, 1996
- A biochemical model of photosynthetic CO2 assimilation in leaves of C3 speciesPlanta, 1980