Contributions of ecological restoration policies to China’s land carbon balance
Abstract Unleashing the land sector’s potential for climate mitigation requires purpose-driven changes in land management. However, contributions of past management changes to the current global and regional carbon cycles remain unclear. Here, we use vegetation modelling to reveal how a portfolio of...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2024-11-01
|
| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54100-9 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1846171850593271808 |
|---|---|
| author | Chao Yue Mengyang Xu Philippe Ciais Shu Tao Huizhong Shen Jinfeng Chang Wei Li Lei Deng Junhao He Yi Leng Yu Li Jiaming Wang Can Xu Han Zhang Pengyi Zhang Liankai Zhang Jie Zhao Lei Zhu Shilong Piao |
| author_facet | Chao Yue Mengyang Xu Philippe Ciais Shu Tao Huizhong Shen Jinfeng Chang Wei Li Lei Deng Junhao He Yi Leng Yu Li Jiaming Wang Can Xu Han Zhang Pengyi Zhang Liankai Zhang Jie Zhao Lei Zhu Shilong Piao |
| author_sort | Chao Yue |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Unleashing the land sector’s potential for climate mitigation requires purpose-driven changes in land management. However, contributions of past management changes to the current global and regional carbon cycles remain unclear. Here, we use vegetation modelling to reveal how a portfolio of ecological restoration policies has impacted China’s terrestrial carbon balance through developing counterfactual ‘no-policy’ scenarios. Pursuing conventional policies and assuming no changes in climate or atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) since 1980 would have led China’s land sector to be a carbon source of 0.11 Pg C yr−1 for 2001–2020, in stark contrast to a sink of 175.9 Tg C yr−1 in reality. About 72.7% of this difference can be attributed to land management changes, including afforestation and reforestation (49.0%), reduced wood extraction (21.8%), fire prevention and suppression (1.6%) and grassland grazing exclusion (0.3%). The remaining 27.3% come from changes in atmospheric CO2 (42.2%) and climate (−14.9%). Our results underscore the potential of active land management in achieving ‘carbon-neutrality’ in China. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-d95e462d209e4a09a327c73581434ec2 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-11-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-d95e462d209e4a09a327c73581434ec22024-11-10T12:32:45ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232024-11-0115111510.1038/s41467-024-54100-9Contributions of ecological restoration policies to China’s land carbon balanceChao Yue0Mengyang Xu1Philippe Ciais2Shu Tao3Huizhong Shen4Jinfeng Chang5Wei Li6Lei Deng7Junhao He8Yi Leng9Yu Li10Jiaming Wang11Can Xu12Han Zhang13Pengyi Zhang14Liankai Zhang15Jie Zhao16Lei Zhu17Shilong Piao18College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F UniversityCollege of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F UniversityLaboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-SaclayGuangdong Provincial Observation and Research Station for Coastal Atmosphere and Climate of the Greater Bay Area, Southern University of Science and TechnologyGuangdong Provincial Observation and Research Station for Coastal Atmosphere and Climate of the Greater Bay Area, Southern University of Science and TechnologyCollege of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang UniversityDepartment of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System modeling, Institute for Global Change Studies, Tsinghua UniversityState Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F UniversityState Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F UniversityDepartment of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System modeling, Institute for Global Change Studies, Tsinghua UniversityCollege of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F UniversityCollege of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F UniversityKunming General Survey of Natural Resources Center, China Geological SurveyCollege of Economics and Management, Northwest A&F UniversityCollege of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F UniversityKunming General Survey of Natural Resources Center, China Geological SurveyShandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Water and Soil Conservation and Environmental Protection, College of Resources and Environment, Linyi UniversityDepartment of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System modeling, Institute for Global Change Studies, Tsinghua UniversitySino-French Institute for Earth System Science, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking UniversityAbstract Unleashing the land sector’s potential for climate mitigation requires purpose-driven changes in land management. However, contributions of past management changes to the current global and regional carbon cycles remain unclear. Here, we use vegetation modelling to reveal how a portfolio of ecological restoration policies has impacted China’s terrestrial carbon balance through developing counterfactual ‘no-policy’ scenarios. Pursuing conventional policies and assuming no changes in climate or atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) since 1980 would have led China’s land sector to be a carbon source of 0.11 Pg C yr−1 for 2001–2020, in stark contrast to a sink of 175.9 Tg C yr−1 in reality. About 72.7% of this difference can be attributed to land management changes, including afforestation and reforestation (49.0%), reduced wood extraction (21.8%), fire prevention and suppression (1.6%) and grassland grazing exclusion (0.3%). The remaining 27.3% come from changes in atmospheric CO2 (42.2%) and climate (−14.9%). Our results underscore the potential of active land management in achieving ‘carbon-neutrality’ in China.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54100-9 |
| spellingShingle | Chao Yue Mengyang Xu Philippe Ciais Shu Tao Huizhong Shen Jinfeng Chang Wei Li Lei Deng Junhao He Yi Leng Yu Li Jiaming Wang Can Xu Han Zhang Pengyi Zhang Liankai Zhang Jie Zhao Lei Zhu Shilong Piao Contributions of ecological restoration policies to China’s land carbon balance Nature Communications |
| title | Contributions of ecological restoration policies to China’s land carbon balance |
| title_full | Contributions of ecological restoration policies to China’s land carbon balance |
| title_fullStr | Contributions of ecological restoration policies to China’s land carbon balance |
| title_full_unstemmed | Contributions of ecological restoration policies to China’s land carbon balance |
| title_short | Contributions of ecological restoration policies to China’s land carbon balance |
| title_sort | contributions of ecological restoration policies to china s land carbon balance |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54100-9 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT chaoyue contributionsofecologicalrestorationpoliciestochinaslandcarbonbalance AT mengyangxu contributionsofecologicalrestorationpoliciestochinaslandcarbonbalance AT philippeciais contributionsofecologicalrestorationpoliciestochinaslandcarbonbalance AT shutao contributionsofecologicalrestorationpoliciestochinaslandcarbonbalance AT huizhongshen contributionsofecologicalrestorationpoliciestochinaslandcarbonbalance AT jinfengchang contributionsofecologicalrestorationpoliciestochinaslandcarbonbalance AT weili contributionsofecologicalrestorationpoliciestochinaslandcarbonbalance AT leideng contributionsofecologicalrestorationpoliciestochinaslandcarbonbalance AT junhaohe contributionsofecologicalrestorationpoliciestochinaslandcarbonbalance AT yileng contributionsofecologicalrestorationpoliciestochinaslandcarbonbalance AT yuli contributionsofecologicalrestorationpoliciestochinaslandcarbonbalance AT jiamingwang contributionsofecologicalrestorationpoliciestochinaslandcarbonbalance AT canxu contributionsofecologicalrestorationpoliciestochinaslandcarbonbalance AT hanzhang contributionsofecologicalrestorationpoliciestochinaslandcarbonbalance AT pengyizhang contributionsofecologicalrestorationpoliciestochinaslandcarbonbalance AT liankaizhang contributionsofecologicalrestorationpoliciestochinaslandcarbonbalance AT jiezhao contributionsofecologicalrestorationpoliciestochinaslandcarbonbalance AT leizhu contributionsofecologicalrestorationpoliciestochinaslandcarbonbalance AT shilongpiao contributionsofecologicalrestorationpoliciestochinaslandcarbonbalance |