Work

Grassland Carbon Budget and Its Driving Factors of the Subtropical and Tropical Monsoon Region in China During 1961 to 2013

Year: 2017

Type: article

Abstract: The southern grasslands are an integral part of the grassland ecosystems of China and play an essential role in the terrestrial carbon cycle of the country. We reproduced the spatiotemporal dynamics of the carbon budget of southern grasslands from 1961 to 2013 using the Terrestrial Ecosystem Model and our results showed that the annual carbon budget varied from −8.12 to 6.16 Tg C y−1with an annual average of 0.45 Tg C y−1during the study period. Overall, southern grasslands acted as a weak carbon sink and sequestrated 23.83 Tg C from 1961 to 2013. At the seasonal scale, southern grasslands acted as a carbon sink in wet seasons but as a carbon source in dry seasons. During the study period, temperature and precipitation were the main factors driving carbon budget dynamics at the seasonal scale, while soil moisture was the main driving factor at the annual scale. Over the entire study region, 71.81% of the area switched to being a carbon sink while only 5.90% remained stable and the strong carbon sinks were mainly found in the southern, northern and western areas of the southern grasslands.

Source: Scientific Reports

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-15296-7

Authors: Li Zhang, GuangSheng Zhou, YuHe Ji, YongFei Bai

Institutions: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Botany, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences

Language: English

Topic: Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics

Subfield: Soil Science

Field: Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Domain: Life Sciences

SDGs: Climate action, Life on land

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,690