The increasing rate of net carbon uptake in Eurasia has been declining since the early 2000s

Mingjuan Xie; Geping Luo; Amaury Frankl; Kwinten Van Weverberg; Yuanyuan Huang; Xiaofei Ma; Yuangang Wang; Chaofan Li; Xiuliang Yuan; Olaf Hellwich; Wenqiang Zhang; Yu Zhang; Qing Ling; Ruixiang Gao; Friday Uchenna Ochege; Philippe De Maeyer

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176890

The increasing rate of net carbon uptake in Eurasia has been declining since the early 2000s

Sci Total Environ. 2024 Oct 15:176890. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176890. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Mingjuan Xie¹, Geping Luo², Amaury Frankl³, Kwinten Van Weverberg⁴, Yuanyuan Huang⁵, Xiaofei Ma⁶, Yuangang Wang⁶, Chaofan Li⁷, Xiuliang Yuan⁶, Olaf Hellwich⁸, Wenqiang Zhang¹, Yu Zhang¹, Qing Ling⁹, Ruixiang Gao⁹, Friday Uchenna Ochege¹⁰, Philippe De Maeyer¹¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Key Laboratory of Ecological Security and Sustainable Development of Arid Zones, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, Xinjiang 830011, China; Department of Geography, Ghent University, Ghent 9000, Belgium; College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Sino-Belgian Joint Laboratory for Geo-Information, Urumqi, China; Sino-Belgian Joint Laboratory for Geo-Information, Ghent, Belgium.
² State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Key Laboratory of Ecological Security and Sustainable Development of Arid Zones, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, Xinjiang 830011, China; College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Sino-Belgian Joint Laboratory for Geo-Information, Urumqi, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
³ Department of Geography, Ghent University, Ghent 9000, Belgium.
⁴ Department of Geography, Ghent University, Ghent 9000, Belgium; Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium, Brussels 1180, Belgium.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Key Laboratory of Ecological Security and Sustainable Development of Arid Zones, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, Xinjiang 830011, China.
⁷ School of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China.
⁸ Department of Computer Vision & Remote Sensing, Technische Universität Berlin, 10587 Berlin, Germany.
⁹ State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Key Laboratory of Ecological Security and Sustainable Development of Arid Zones, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, Xinjiang 830011, China; College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
¹⁰ State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Key Laboratory of Ecological Security and Sustainable Development of Arid Zones, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, Xinjiang 830011, China; Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Port Harcourt, PMB 5323 Choba, East-West, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
¹¹ Department of Geography, Ghent University, Ghent 9000, Belgium; College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Sino-Belgian Joint Laboratory for Geo-Information, Urumqi, China; Sino-Belgian Joint Laboratory for Geo-Information, Ghent, Belgium.

PMID: 39419228
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176890

Abstract

The analysis of terrestrial ecosystem carbon dynamics, based on scarce carbon flux observations or carbon flux products simulated by reanalysis meteorological data, has great uncertainties. A more accurate understanding of carbon dynamics in Eurasia was achieved by using a carbon flux dataset (CFD) from meteorological stations with quasi-observational characteristics. The growth of net carbon uptake of ecosystems over Eurasia has been decreasing since the early 2000s. The net ecosystem productivity (NEP) increased significantly with the growth rate of 8.7 × 10^-3 g C m^-2d^-1 yr^-1 in spring, summer, and autumn (SSA) during 2003-2011 (p < 0.05), which was correlated with the enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and land surface water index (LSWI). This growth was mostly in dry subhumid and humid regions. However, the change in Eurasian NEP was not significant after 2011. Additionally, about 79 % of the stations in Eurasia were in net carbon uptake in SSA, and net carbon emission stations were mainly located in southwestern Eurasia. The intensity of net carbon uptake was highest in the forest, with a mean carbon uptake of 1.73 ± 0.76 g C m^-2d^-1 in SSA during 2003-2018, and almost all stations demonstrated carbon uptake. During 2011-2018, the number of stations experiencing reduced NEP exceeded those with increased NEP, and this ratio was higher compared to 2003-2011, mainly due to the decrease in EVI and LSWI. The rate of NEP decline at stations with reduced NEP was 5.2 × 10^-3 g C m^-2d^-1 yr^-1 faster during 2011-2018 than in the previous period (p < 0.01). Most of the decreases in NEP during 2011-2018 occurred in cropland, grassland and urban land. The spatio-temporal dynamic analysis of Eurasian NEP could provide references for effective carbon management.

Keywords: Eurasia; Net carbon emissions; Net carbon uptake; Net ecosystem productivity.