Forest management in southern China generates short term extensive carbon sequestration

Xiaowei Tong, Martin Brandt, Yuemin Yue, Philippe Ciais, Martin Rudbeck Jepsen, Josep Penuelas, Jean Pierre Wigneron, Xiangming Xiao, Xiao Peng Song, Stephanie Horion, Kjeld Rasmussen, Sassan Saatchi, Lei Fan, Kelin Wang, Bing Zhang, Zhengchao Chen, Yuhang Wang, Xiaojun Li, Rasmus Fensholt

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

254 Scopus citations

Abstract

Land use policies have turned southern China into one of the most intensively managed forest regions in the world, with actions maximizing forest cover on soils with marginal agricultural potential while concurrently increasing livelihoods and mitigating climate change. Based on satellite observations, here we show that diverse land use changes in southern China have increased standing aboveground carbon stocks by 0.11 ± 0.05 Pg C y−1 during 2002–2017. Most of this regional carbon sink was contributed by newly established forests (32%), while forests already existing contributed 24%. Forest growth in harvested forest areas contributed 16% and non-forest areas contributed 28% to the carbon sink, while timber harvest was tripled. Soil moisture declined significantly in 8% of the area. We demonstrate that land management in southern China has been removing an amount of carbon equivalent to 33% of regional fossil CO2 emissions during the last 6 years, but forest growth saturation, land competition for food production and soil-water depletion challenge the longevity of this carbon sink service.

Original languageEnglish
Article number129
JournalNature Communications
Volume11
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2020

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