Satellite passive microwaves reveal recent climate-induced carbon losses in African drylands
Brandt, Martin (Københavns Universitet. Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management)
Wigneron, Jean-Pierre (Institut national de la recherche agronomique. Interactions Sol Plante Atmosphère)
Chave, Jerome (Université Paul Sabatier. Laboratoire Evolution and Diversité Biologique)
Tagesson, Torbern (Københavns Universitet. Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management)
Peñuelas, Josep (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Ciais, Philippe (Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de L'Environnement)
Rasmussen, Kjeld (Københavns Universitet. Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management)
Tian, Feng (Københavns Universitet. Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management)
Mbow, Cheikh (START International Inc.)
Al-Yaari, Amen (Institut national de la recherche agronomique. Interactions Sol Plante Atmosphère)
Rodriguez-Fernandez, Nemesio (Centre d'Etudes Spatiales de la BIOsphère)
Schurgers, Guy (Københavns Universitet. Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management)
Zhang, Wenmin (Københavns Universitet. Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management)
Chang, Jinfeng (Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de L'Environnement)
Kerr, Yann (Centre d'Etudes Spatiales de la BIOsphère)
Verger, Aleixandre (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Tucker, Compton (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
Mialon, Arnaud (Centre d'Etudes Spatiales de la BIOsphère)
Rasmussen, Laura Vang (Københavns Universitet. Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management)
Fan, Lei (Københavns Universitet. Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management)
Fensholt, Rasmus

Date:	2018
Abstract:	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.
Grants:	European Commission 610028
Rights:	Tots els drets reservats.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Subject:	Climate-change impacts ; Environmental sciences ; Forest ecology
Published in:	Nature ecology & evolution, Vol. 2 (April 2018) , p. 827-835, ISSN 2397-334X

DOI: 10.1038/s41559-018-0530-6

Post-print 32 p, 1.5 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals) > Imbalance-P
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles