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Satellite-observed pantropical carbon dynamics

Fan, Lei ; Wigneron, Jean Pierre ; Ciais, Philippe ; Chave, Jérôme ; Brandt, Martin ; Fensholt, Rasmus ; Saatchi, Sassan S. ; Bastos, Ana ; Al-Yaari, Amen and Hufkens, Koen , et al. (2019) In Nature Plants 5(9). p.944-951
Abstract

Changes in terrestrial tropical carbon stocks have an important role in the global carbon budget. However, current observational tools do not allow accurate and large-scale monitoring of the spatial distribution and dynamics of carbon stocks1. Here, we used low-frequency L-band passive microwave observations to compute a direct and spatially explicit quantification of annual aboveground carbon (AGC) fluxes and show that the tropical net AGC budget was approximately in balance during 2010 to 2017, the net budget being composed of gross losses of −2.86 PgC yr−1 offset by gross gains of −2.97 PgC yr−1 between continents. Large interannual and spatial fluctuations of tropical AGC were quantified during the... (More)

Changes in terrestrial tropical carbon stocks have an important role in the global carbon budget. However, current observational tools do not allow accurate and large-scale monitoring of the spatial distribution and dynamics of carbon stocks1. Here, we used low-frequency L-band passive microwave observations to compute a direct and spatially explicit quantification of annual aboveground carbon (AGC) fluxes and show that the tropical net AGC budget was approximately in balance during 2010 to 2017, the net budget being composed of gross losses of −2.86 PgC yr−1 offset by gross gains of −2.97 PgC yr−1 between continents. Large interannual and spatial fluctuations of tropical AGC were quantified during the wet 2011 La Niña year and throughout the extreme dry and warm 2015–2016 El Niño episode. These interannual fluctuations, controlled predominantly by semiarid biomes, were shown to be closely related to independent global atmospheric CO2 growth-rate anomalies (Pearson’s r = 0.86), highlighting the pivotal role of tropical AGC in the global carbon budget.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Nature Plants
volume
5
issue
9
pages
944 - 951
publisher
Palgrave Macmillan
external identifiers
  • scopus:85069928672
  • pmid:31358958
ISSN
2055-0278
DOI
10.1038/s41477-019-0478-9
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
1da5bc06-9686-405a-9eb2-be13f31b09b1
date added to LUP
2019-08-28 14:06:55
date last changed
2024-03-03 22:25:02
@article{1da5bc06-9686-405a-9eb2-be13f31b09b1,
  abstract     = {{<p>Changes in terrestrial tropical carbon stocks have an important role in the global carbon budget. However, current observational tools do not allow accurate and large-scale monitoring of the spatial distribution and dynamics of carbon stocks<sup>1</sup>. Here, we used low-frequency L-band passive microwave observations to compute a direct and spatially explicit quantification of annual aboveground carbon (AGC) fluxes and show that the tropical net AGC budget was approximately in balance during 2010 to 2017, the net budget being composed of gross losses of −2.86 PgC yr<sup>−1</sup> offset by gross gains of −2.97 PgC yr<sup>−1</sup> between continents. Large interannual and spatial fluctuations of tropical AGC were quantified during the wet 2011 La Niña year and throughout the extreme dry and warm 2015–2016 El Niño episode. These interannual fluctuations, controlled predominantly by semiarid biomes, were shown to be closely related to independent global atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> growth-rate anomalies (Pearson’s r = 0.86), highlighting the pivotal role of tropical AGC in the global carbon budget.</p>}},
  author       = {{Fan, Lei and Wigneron, Jean Pierre and Ciais, Philippe and Chave, Jérôme and Brandt, Martin and Fensholt, Rasmus and Saatchi, Sassan S. and Bastos, Ana and Al-Yaari, Amen and Hufkens, Koen and Qin, Yuanwei and Xiao, Xiangming and Chen, Chi and Myneni, Ranga B. and Fernandez-Moran, Roberto and Mialon, Arnaud and Rodriguez-Fernandez, N. J. and Kerr, Yann and Tian, Feng and Peñuelas, Josep}},
  issn         = {{2055-0278}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{9}},
  pages        = {{944--951}},
  publisher    = {{Palgrave Macmillan}},
  series       = {{Nature Plants}},
  title        = {{Satellite-observed pantropical carbon dynamics}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41477-019-0478-9}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41477-019-0478-9}},
  volume       = {{5}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}