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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.
Copyright 2003 by the American Geophysical Union.
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