Historical Warming Reduced Due to Enhanced Land Carbon Uptake

Overview

Journal Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Specialty Science

Date 2013 Sep 25

PMID 24062452

Citations 11

Authors

Elena Shevliakova

Ronald J Stouffer

Sergey Malyshev

John P Krasting

George C Hurtt

Stephen W Pacala

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Previous studies have demonstrated the importance of enhanced vegetation growth under future elevated atmospheric CO2 for 21st century climate warming. Surprisingly no study has completed an analogous assessment for the historical period, during which emissions of greenhouse gases increased rapidly and land-use changes (LUC) dramatically altered terrestrial carbon sources and sinks. Using the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory comprehensive Earth System Model ESM2G and a reconstruction of the LUC, we estimate that enhanced vegetation growth has lowered the historical atmospheric CO2 concentration by 85 ppm, avoiding an additional 0.31 ± 0.06 °C warming. We demonstrate that without enhanced vegetation growth the total residual terrestrial carbon flux (i.e., the net land flux minus LUC flux) would be a source of 65-82 Gt of carbon (GtC) to atmosphere instead of the historical residual carbon sink of 186-192 GtC, a carbon saving of 251-274 GtC.

Citing Articles

Estimating the Decoupling between Net Carbon Emissions and Construction Land and Its Driving Factors: Evidence from Shandong Province, China.

Li M, Liu H, Yu S, Wang J, Miao Y, Wang C Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022; 19(15).

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A small climate-amplifying effect of climate-carbon cycle feedback.

Zhang X, Wang Y, Rayner P, Ciais P, Huang K, Luo Y Nat Commun. 2021; 12(1):2952.

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Climate change and carbon sink: a bibliometric analysis.

Huang L, Chen K, Zhou M Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2020; 27(8):8740-8758.

PMID: 31912388 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-019-07489-6.

Greenhouse Gas Concentration and Volcanic Eruptions Controlled the Variability of Terrestrial Carbon Uptake Over the Last Millennium.

Zhang X, Peng S, Ciais P, Wang Y, Silver J, Piao S J Adv Model Earth Syst. 2019; 11(6):1715-1734.

PMID: 31598188 PMC: 6774283. DOI: 10.1029/2018MS001566.

Prominence of the tropics in the recent rise of global nitrogen pollution.

Lee M, Shevliakova E, Stock C, Malyshev S, Milly P Nat Commun. 2019; 10(1):1437.

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