Changes in global terrestrial live biomass over the 21st century.
Liang Xu, Sassan S Saatchi, Yan Yang, Yifan Yu, Julia Pongratz, A Anthony Bloom, Kevin Bowman, John Worden, Junjie Liu, Yi Yin, Grant Domke, Ronald E McRoberts, Christopher Woodall, Gert-Jan Nabuurs, Sergio de-Miguel, Michael Keller, Nancy Harris, Sean Maxwell, David Schimel
Author Information
Liang Xu: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. ORCID
Sassan S Saatchi: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. saatchi@jpl.nasa.gov. ORCID
Yan Yang: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. ORCID
Yifan Yu: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. ORCID
Julia Pongratz: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Luisenstr. 37, 80333 Munich, Germany. ORCID
A Anthony Bloom: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
Kevin Bowman: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. ORCID
John Worden: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. ORCID
Junjie Liu: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. ORCID
Yi Yin: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. ORCID
Grant Domke: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, St. Paul, MN, USA. ORCID
Ronald E McRoberts: CFANS Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA.
Christopher Woodall: U.S, Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Durham, NH, USA. ORCID
Gert-Jan Nabuurs: Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, Netherlands. ORCID
Sergio de-Miguel: Department of Crop and Forest Sciences, University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain. ORCID
Michael Keller: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. ORCID
Nancy Harris: World Resources Institute, 10 G Street NE, Washington, DC, USA. ORCID
Sean Maxwell: School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia. ORCID
David Schimel: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. ORCID
Live woody vegetation is the largest reservoir of biomass carbon, with its restoration considered one of the most effective natural climate solutions. However, terrestrial carbon fluxes remain the largest uncertainty in the global carbon cycle. Here, we develop spatially explicit estimates of carbon stock changes of live woody biomass from 2000 to 2019 using measurements from ground, air, and space. We show that live biomass has removed 4.9 to 5.5 PgC year from the atmosphere, offsetting 4.6 ± 0.1 PgC year of gross emissions from disturbances and adding substantially (0.23 to 0.88 PgC year) to the global carbon stocks. Gross emissions and removals in the tropics were four times larger than temperate and boreal ecosystems combined. Although live biomass is responsible for more than 80% of gross terrestrial fluxes, soil, dead organic matter, and lateral transport may play important roles in terrestrial carbon sink.
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