Recent gains in global terrestrial carbon stocks are mostly stored in nonliving pools
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Terrestrial sequestration of carbon has mitigated ≈30% of anthropogenic carbon emissions. However, its distribution across different pools, live or dead biomass and soil and sedimentary organic carbon, remains uncertain. Analyzing global observational datasets of changes in terrestrial carbon pools, we found that ≈35 ± 14 gigatons of carbon (GtC) have been sequestered on land between 1992 and 2019, whereas live biomass changed by ≈1 ± 7 GtC. Global vegetation models instead imply that sequestration has been mostly in live biomass. We identify key processes not included in most models that can explain this discrepancy. Most terrestrial carbon gains are sequestered as nonliving matter and thus are more persistent than previously appreciated, with a substantial fraction linked to human activities such as river damming, wood harvest, and garbage disposal in landfills.
Source: Science
Institutions: California Institute of Technology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Université de Bordeaux, Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement, Interaction Sol Plante Atmosphère, Southwest Jiaotong University, University of Exeter, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives, Université Paris-Saclay, Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Language: English
Subfield: Soil Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDGs: Climate action, Life on land
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4408662264