Skip to content
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
Satellite passive microwaves reveal recent climate-induced carbon losses in African drylands
Nature Ecology and Evolution, Volume 2, No. 5, Year 2018
Notification
URL copied to clipboard!
Description
The African continent is facing one of the driest periods in the past three decades as well as continued deforestation. These disturbances threaten vegetation carbon (C) stocks and highlight the need for improved capabilities of monitoring large-scale aboveground carbon stock dynamics. Here we use a satellite dataset based on vegetation optical depth derived from low-frequency passive microwaves (L-VOD) to quantify annual aboveground biomass-carbon changes in sub-Saharan Africa between 2010 and 2016. L-VOD is shown not to saturate over densely vegetated areas. The overall net change in drylands (53% of the land area) was-0.05 petagrams of C per year (Pg C yr-1) associated with drying trends, and a net change of-0.02 Pg C yr-1 was observed in humid areas. These trends reflect a high inter-Annual variability with a very dry year in 2015 (net change,-0.69 Pg C) with about half of the gross losses occurring in drylands. This study demonstrates, first, the applicability of L-VOD to monitor the dynamics of carbon loss and gain due to weather variations, and second, the importance of the highly dynamic and vulnerable carbon pool of dryland savannahs for the global carbon balance, despite the relatively low carbon stock per unit area. © 2018 The Author(s).
Authors & Co-Authors
Brandt, Martin S.
Denmark, Copenhagen
Københavns Universitet
Wigneron, Jean Pierre
France, Villenave-d'ornon
Interaction Sol Plante Atmosphère
Chave, Jérôme
France, Toulouse
Laboratoire Évolution et Diversité Biologique
Tagesson, Torbern
Denmark, Copenhagen
Københavns Universitet
Penuelas, Josep J.
Spain, Cerdanyola Del Valles
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Spain, Cerdanyola Del Valles
Centre de Recerca Ecològica I Aplicacions Forestals Creaf-cerca
Ciais, Philippe
France, Gif-sur-yvette
Commissariat a L'energie Atomique et Aux Energies Alternatives
Rasmussen, Kjeld
Denmark, Copenhagen
Københavns Universitet
Tian, Feng
Denmark, Copenhagen
Københavns Universitet
Mbow, Cheikh
United States, Washington, D.c.
Start International Inc
Rodríguez-Fernández, Nemesio J.
France, Paris
Cnes Centre National D'etudes Spatiales
Schurgers, Guy
Denmark, Copenhagen
Københavns Universitet
Zhang, Wenmin
Denmark, Copenhagen
Københavns Universitet
China, Nanjing
Nanjing University
Kerr, Yann H.
France, Paris
Cnes Centre National D'etudes Spatiales
Verger, Aleixandre
Spain, Cerdanyola Del Valles
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Spain, Cerdanyola Del Valles
Centre de Recerca Ecològica I Aplicacions Forestals Creaf-cerca
Tucker, Compton James
United States, Greenbelt
Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center
Rasmussen, Laura Vang
Denmark, Copenhagen
Københavns Universitet
Fensholt, R.
Denmark, Copenhagen
Københavns Universitet
Statistics
Citations: 153
Authors: 17
Affiliations: 10
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1038/s41559-018-0530-6
ISSN:
2397334X
Research Areas
Environmental