A large and persistent carbon sink in the world's forests
Pan, Yude ; Birdsey, Richard A. ; Fang, Jingyun ; Houghton, Richard ; Kauppi, Pekka E. ; Kurz, Werner A. ; Phillips, Oliver L. ; Shvidenko, Anatoly ; Lewis, Simon L. ; Canadell, Josep G. ; Ciais, Philippe ; Jackson, Robert B. ; Pacala, Stephen W. ; McGuire, A. David ; Piao, Shilong ; Rautiainen, Aapo ; Sitch, Stephen ; Hayes, Daniel
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.
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