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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
general
Climate warming from managed grasslands cancels the cooling effect of carbon sinks in sparsely grazed and natural grasslands
Nature Communications, Volume 12, No. 1, Article 118, Year 2021
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Description
Grasslands absorb and release carbon dioxide (CO2), emit methane (CH4) from grazing livestock, and emit nitrous oxide (N2O) from soils. Little is known about how the fluxes of these three greenhouse gases, from managed and natural grasslands worldwide, have contributed to past climate change, or the roles of managed pastures versus natural grasslands. Here, global trends and regional patterns of the full greenhouse gas balance of grasslands are estimated for the period 1750 to 2012. A new spatially explicit land surface model is applied, to separate the direct effects of human activities from land management and the indirect effects from climate change, increasing CO2 and regional changes in nitrogen deposition. Direct human management activities are simulated to have caused grasslands to switch from a sink to a source of greenhouse gas, because of increased livestock numbers and accelerated conversion of natural lands to pasture. However, climate change drivers contributed a net carbon sink in soil organic matter, mainly from the increased productivity of grasslands due to increased CO2 and nitrogen deposition. The net radiative forcing of all grasslands is currently close to neutral, but has been increasing since the 1960s. Here, we show that the net global climate warming caused by managed grassland cancels the net climate cooling from carbon sinks in sparsely grazed and natural grasslands. In the face of future climate change and increased demand for livestock products, these findings highlight the need to use sustainable management to preserve and enhance soil carbon storage in grasslands and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from managed grasslands. © 2021, The Author(s).
Available Materials
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC7785734/bin/41467_2020_20406_MOESM1_ESM.pdf
Authors & Co-Authors
Ciais, Philippe
France, Gif-sur-yvette
Commissariat a L'energie Atomique et Aux Energies Alternatives
Gasser, Thomas
Austria, Laxenburg
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg
Smith, Pete D.
United Kingdom, Aberdeen
University of Aberdeen
Herrero, Mario
Australia, Canberra
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
Havlik, Petr
Austria, Laxenburg
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg
Obersteiner, Michael H.
Austria, Laxenburg
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg
Guenet, Bertrand
France, Gif-sur-yvette
Commissariat a L'energie Atomique et Aux Energies Alternatives
Goll, Daniel S.
France, Gif-sur-yvette
Commissariat a L'energie Atomique et Aux Energies Alternatives
Naipal, Victoria
Germany, Munich
Ludwig-maximilians-universität München
Peng, Shushi
China, Beijing
Peking University
Qiu, Chunjing
France, Gif-sur-yvette
Commissariat a L'energie Atomique et Aux Energies Alternatives
Tian, Hanqing
United States, Auburn
Auburn University
Viovy, Nicolas
France, Gif-sur-yvette
Commissariat a L'energie Atomique et Aux Energies Alternatives
Yue, Chao
China, Yangling
Northwest A&f University
Zhu, Dan
France, Gif-sur-yvette
Commissariat a L'energie Atomique et Aux Energies Alternatives
Statistics
Citations: 96
Authors: 15
Affiliations: 9
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1038/s41467-020-20406-7
ISSN:
20411723
Research Areas
Environmental