Changes in land use and management led to a decline in Eastern Europe’s terrestrial carbon sink

Land-based mitigation is essential in reducing net carbon emissions. Yet, the attribution of carbon fluxes remains highly uncertain, in particular for the forest-rich region of Eastern Europe (incl. Western Russia). Here we integrate various data sources to show that Eastern Europe accounted for an...

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Veröffentlicht in:Communications earth & environment Jg. 4; H. 1; S. 237 - 14
Hauptverfasser: Winkler, Karina, Yang, Hui, Ganzenmüller, Raphael, Fuchs, Richard, Ceccherini, Guido, Duveiller, Grégory, Grassi, Giacomo, Pongratz, Julia, Bastos, Ana, Shvidenko, Anatoly, Araza, Arnan, Herold, Martin, Wigneron, Jean-Pierre, Ciais, Philippe
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: London Nature Publishing Group 03.07.2023
Springer Nature
Nature Portfolio
Schlagworte:
Biomass
Carbon
Carbon sequestration
Carbon sinks
Emissions
Land management
Land use
Land use management
Mitigation
Moisture effects
Natural disturbance
Regrowth
Sciences of the Universe
Soil moisture
Eastern Europe
Russia
ISSN:2662-4435, 2662-4435
Online-Zugang:Volltext
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Zusammenfassung:Land-based mitigation is essential in reducing net carbon emissions. Yet, the attribution of carbon fluxes remains highly uncertain, in particular for the forest-rich region of Eastern Europe (incl. Western Russia). Here we integrate various data sources to show that Eastern Europe accounted for an above-ground biomass carbon sink of ~0.41 gigatons of carbon per year over the period 2010–2019, that is 78% of the entire European carbon sink. We find that this carbon sink is declining, mainly driven by changes in land use and land management, but also by increasing natural disturbances. Based on a random forest model, we show that land use and management changes are main drivers of the declining carbon sink in Eastern Europe, although soil moisture variability is also important. Specifically, the saturation effect of tree regrowth in abandoned agricultural areas, combined with increasing wood harvest removals, particularly in European Russia, contributed to the decrease in the Eastern European carbon sink.
Bibliographie:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
ISSN:2662-4435
2662-4435
DOI:10.1038/s43247-023-00893-4