The impact of lateral carbon fluxes on the European carbon balance

in Biogeosciences (2008), 5

To date, little is known about the impact of processes which cause lateral carbon fluxes over continents, and from continents to oceans on the CO2 – and carbon budgets at local, regional and continental ... [more ▼]

To date, little is known about the impact of processes which cause lateral carbon fluxes over continents, and from continents to oceans on the CO2 – and carbon budgets at local, regional and continental scales. Lateral carbon fluxes contribute to regional carbon budgets as follows: Ecosystem CO2 sink=Ecosystem carbon accumulation+Lateral carbon fluxes. We estimated the contribution of wood and food product trade, of emission and oxidation of reduced carbon species, and of river erosion and transport as lateral carbon fluxes to the carbon balance of Europe (EU-25). The analysis is completed by new estimates of the carbon fluxes of coastal seas. We estimated that lateral transport (all processes combined) is a flux of 165 Tg C yr−1 at the scale of EU-25. The magnitude of lateral transport is thus comparable to current estimates of carbon accumulation in European forests. The main process contributing to the total lateral flux out of Europe is the flux of reduced carbon compounds, corresponding to the sum of non-CO2 gaseous species (CH4, CO, hydrocarbons, . . . ) emitted by ecosystems and exported out of the European boundary layer by the large scale atmospheric circulation. [less ▲]

CO2 balance of boreal, temperate, and tropical forests derived from a global database

in Global Change Biology (2007), 13(12), 2509-2537

Terrestrial ecosystems sequester 2.1 Pg of atmospheric carbon annually. A large amount of the terrestrial sink is realized by forests. However, considerable uncertainties remain regarding the fate of this ... [more ▼]

Terrestrial ecosystems sequester 2.1 Pg of atmospheric carbon annually. A large amount of the terrestrial sink is realized by forests. However, considerable uncertainties remain regarding the fate of this carbon over both short and long timescales. Relevant data to address these uncertainties are being collected at many sites around the world, but syntheses of these data are still sparse. To facilitate future synthesis activities, we have assembled a comprehensive global database for forest ecosystems, which includes carbon budget variables (fluxes and stocks), ecosystem traits (e.g. leaf area index, age), as well as ancillary site information such as management regime, climate, and soil characteristics. This publicly available database can be used to quantify global, regional or biome-specific carbon budgets; to re-examine established relationships; to test emerging hypotheses about ecosystem functioning [e.g. a constant net ecosystem production (NEP) to gross primary production (GPP) ratio]; and as benchmarks for model evaluations. In this paper, we present the first analysis of this database. We discuss the climatic influences on GPP, net primary production (NPP) and NEP and present the CO2 balances for boreal, temperate, and tropical forest biomes based on micrometeorological, ecophysiological, and biometric flux and inventory estimates. Globally, GPP of forests benefited from higher temperatures and precipitation whereas NPP saturated above either a threshold of 1500 mm precipitation or a mean annual temperature of 10 degrees C. The global pattern in NEP was insensitive to climate and is hypothesized to be mainly determined by nonclimatic conditions such as successional stage, management, site history, and site disturbance. In all biomes, closing the CO2 balance required the introduction of substantial biome-specific closure terms. Nonclosure was taken as an indication that respiratory processes, advection, and non-CO2 carbon fluxes are not presently being adequately accounted for. [less ▲]

Reduction Of Ecosystem Productivity And Respiration During The European Summer 2003 Climate Anomaly: A Joint Flux Tower, Remote Sensing And Modelling Analysis

in Global Change Biology (2007), 13(3),