American Geophysical Union Become an AGU Member
Subscribe to AGU Journals		 AGU Home AGU Publications

Read Full Article (file size: 613671 bytes)    Cited by

GLOBAL BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES, VOL. 17, NO. 1, 1021, doi:10.1029/2002GB001923, 2003

Sustainability of terrestrial carbon sequestration: A case study in Duke Forest with inversion approach

Yiqi Luo

Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, USA


Luther W. White

Department of Mathematics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, USA


Josep G. Canadell

Global Carbon Project, International Research Project Office, CSIRO Land and Water, Canberra, ACT, Australia


Evan H. DeLucia

Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA


David S. Ellsworth

School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA


Adrien Finzi

Department of Biology, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA


John Lichter

Biology Department and Environmental Studies Program, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, USA


William H. Schlesinger

Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA


Abstract

A sound understanding of the sustainability of terrestrial carbon (C) sequestration is critical for the success of any policies geared toward stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse concentrations. This includes the Kyoto Protocol and/or other greenhouse strategies implemented by individual countries. However, the sustainability of C sinks and pools has not been carefully studied with either empirical or theoretical approaches. This study was intended to develop a conceptual framework to define the sustainability based on C influx and residence time (τ). The latter τ quantifies the capacity for C storage in various plant and soil pools. We estimated τ via inverse analysis of multiple data sets from a Free-Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) experiment in Duke Forest, North Carolina, United States. This study suggested that estimated residence times at elevated CO2 decreased for plant C pools and increased for litter and soil pools in comparison to those at ambient CO2. The ensemble of the residence times from all the pools at elevated CO2, however, was well correlated with that at ambient CO2. We then used the estimated residence times, combined with C influx, to simulate C sequestration rates in response to a gradual increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration (Ca). The simulated C sequestration rate gradually increased from 69 g m−2 yr−1 in 2000 when Ca was 378 ppm to 201 g m−2 yr−1 in 2100 when Ca was at 710 ppm. Thus, the current evidence from both experimental observations and inverse analysis suggested that C sequestration in the forest ecosystem was likely to increase gradually as Ca gradually increases. The model projection of the C sequestration will improve as more data on long-term processes become available in coming years. In addition, such a modeled increase in terrestrial C sequestration is too small to balance the anthropogenic C emission.

Published 6 March 2003.

Index Terms: 1615 Global Change: Biogeochemical processes (4805); 1620 Global Change: Climate dynamics (3309); 9350 Information Related to Geographic Region: North America.

Read Full Article (file size: 613671 bytes)    Cited by

Citation: Luo, Y., L. W. White, J. G. Canadell, E. H. DeLucia, D. S. Ellsworth, A. Finzi, J. Lichter, and W. H. Schlesinger (2003), Sustainability of terrestrial carbon sequestration: A case study in Duke Forest with inversion approach, Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 17(1), 1021, doi:10.1029/2002GB001923.