Critical land change information enhances the understanding of carbon balance in the United States
Large-scale terrestrial carbon (C) estimating studies using methods such as atmospheric inversion, biogeochemical modeling, and field inventories have produced different results. The goal of this study was to integrate fine-scale processes including land use and land cover change into a large-scale ecosystem framework. We analyzed the terrestrial C budget of the conterminous United States from 1971 to 2015 at 1-km resolution using an enhanced dynamic global vegetation model and comprehensive land cover change data. Effects of atmospheric CO2 fertilization, nitrogen deposition, climate, wildland fire, harvest, and land use/land cover change (LUCC) were considered. We estimate annual C losses from cropland harvest, forest clearcut and thinning, fire, and LUCC were 436.8, 117.9, 10.5, and 10.4 TgC/year, respectively. C stored in ecosystems increased from 119,494 to 127,157 TgC between 1971 and 2015, indicating a mean annual net C sink of 170.3 TgC/year. Although ecosystem net primary production increased by approximately 12.3 TgC/year, most of it was offset by increased C loss from harvest and natural disturbance and increased ecosystem respiration related to forest aging. As a result, the strength of the overall ecosystem C sink did not increase over time. Our modeled results indicate the conterminous US C sink was about 30% smaller than previous modeling studies, but converged more closely with inventory data.
Citation Information
| Publication Year | 2020 |
|---|---|
| Title | Critical land change information enhances the understanding of carbon balance in the United States |
| DOI | 10.1111/gcb.15079 |
| Authors | Jinxun Liu, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Zhiliang Zhu, Thomas Loveland, Terry L. Sohl, Stephen M. Howard, Carl H. Key, Todd Hawbaker, Shuguang Liu, Bradley C. Reed, Mark A. Cochrane, Linda S. Heath, Hong Jiang, David T. Price, Jing M. Chen, Decheng Zhou, Norman B. Bliss, Tamara S. Wilson, Jason T. Sherba, Qiuan Zhu, Yiqi Luo, Benjiamin Paulter |
| Publication Type | Article |
| Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
| Series Title | Global Change Biology |
| Index ID | 70243066 |
| Record Source | USGS Publications Warehouse |
| USGS Organization | Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center; Western Geographic Science Center |
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Data Release - CONUS carbon budget related to Global Change Biology publication
Tamara Wilson
Research Geographer
Deputy Director
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Data Release - CONUS carbon budget related to Global Change Biology publication
This simulated ecosystem carbon dataset is used to report terrestrial carbon budget of the conterminous U.S. in the Golobal Change Biology paper "Critical land change information enhances understanding of carbon balance in the U.S." The data is derived from simulations of the parallel Integrated Biosphere simulator (pIBIS). Annual carbon variables cover 1971-2015 at 1-km (960m) spatial resolution - Connect
Tamara Wilson
Research GeographerDeputy DirectorEmailPhone