The Climatic-induced Net Carbon Sink by Terrestrial Biosphere over 1901-1995

The spatial and temporal variability of land carbon flux over the past one hundred years was investi- gated based on an empirical model directry calculating soil respiration rate. Our model shows that during 1901-1995, about 44-89 PgC (equals to 0.5, 0.9 PgC/ yr respectively) were absorbed by terrestrial biosphere. The simulated net ecosystem productivity (NEP) after the 1930s was close to the estimated value of u missing C sink' from deconvolution analysis. Most of the total carbon sink happened during 1951 -1985 with the estimated value of 33-50 PgC Three major sinks were located in the tropics (10°S-10°N), North- ern mid-latitudes (30°-60°N) and Southern subtropics (10°-40°S). During 1940s-mid-1970s, carbon sinks by terrestrial ecosystem increased with time, and decreased after the mid-1970s. These may be due to the ch anging of climate condition, as during the 1940s-1970s, temPerature decreased and precipitation increased, while after the mid-1970s, an opposite climate situation occurred with evident increasing in temperature and decreasing in precipitation. Usually, warmer and dryer climate condition is not favor for carbon absorption by biosphere and even induces net carbon release from soil, while cooler and wetter condition may induce more carbon sink. Our model results show that the net carbon flux is particularly dependent on moisture / precipitation effect despite of temperature effect, The changing of climate in the past century may be a possible factor inducing increases in carbon sink in addition to CO2 and N fertilizer.

Sensitivity of the simulated CO2 concentration to inter-annual variations of its sources and sinks over East Asia

The study on how the variations in CO2 sources and sinks can affect the CO2 concentration over East Asia would be useful to provide information for policymaker concerning carbon emission reduction.In this study,a nested-grid version of global chemical transport model(GEOS-Chem)is employed to assess the impacts of variations in meteorological parameters,terrestrial fluxes,fossil fuel emissions,and biomass burning on inter-annual variations of CO2 concentrations over East Asia in 2004—2012.Simulated CO2 concentrations are compared with observations at 14 surface stations from the World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases(WDCGG)and satellite-derived C 02 column density(XCO,)from the Gases Observing SATellite(GOSAT).The comparison shows that the simulated CO2 column density is generally higher than that of GOSAT by 1.33×10^6(annual mean point by point biases averaged over East Asia).The model reasonably captures the temporal variations of CO2 concentrations observed at the ground-based stations,but it is likely to underestimate the peaks-to-troughs amplitude of the seasonal cycle by 50%or more.The simulated surface CO2 concentration in East Asia exhibits the largest inter-annual variation in December-January—February(DJF).The regional mean absolute deviation(MAD)values over East Asia are within(4.4—5.0)×10^-6 for all seasons.Model sensitivity simulations indicate that the inter-annual variations of surface CO2 concentrations are mainly driven by variations of meteorological parameters,and partly modulated by the inter-annual variations of terrestrial fluxes and fossil fuel emissions in local regions.The variations of the terrestrial fluxes and fossil fuel emissions may account for〜28%of the inter-annual variation of surface CO2 concentration in southern China.The inter-annual variations of the peaks-to-troughs amplitude are dependent on variations of meteorological parameters,terrestrial fluxes and fossil fuel emissions in local regions.The influence of biomass burning emissions is relatively weak.