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Cited by 298

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 72 of the 72 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Protecting irrecoverable carbon in Earth’s ecosystems

Open access
Goldstein, Allie, Turner, Will R., Spawn, Seth A., Anderson-Teixeira, Kristina J., Cook-Patton, Susan, Fargione, Joseph, Gibbs, Holly K., Griscom, Bronson, Hewson, Jennifer H., Howard, Jennifer F., Ledezma, Juan Carlos, Page, Susan, Koh, Lian Pin, Rockström, Johan, Sanderman, Jonathan, Hole, David G.·2020·Nature Climate Change

Abstract

Avoiding catastrophic climate change requires rapid decarbonization and improved ecosystem stewardship. To achieve the latter, ecosystems should be prioritized by responsiveness to direct, localized action and the magnitude and recoverability of their carbon stores. Here, we show that a range of ecosystems contain ‘irrecoverable carbon’ that is vulnerable to release upon land use conversion and, once lost, is not recoverable on timescales relevant to avoiding dangerous climate impacts. Globally, ecosystems highly affected by human land-use decisions contain at least 260 Gt of irrecoverable carbon, with particularly high densities in peatlands, mangroves, old-growth forests and marshes. To achieve climate goals, we must safeguard these irrecoverable carbon pools through an expanded set of policy and finance strategies. In order to limit warming and the most severe consequences of climate change, net global carbon emissions must reach zero by 2050. Many ecosystems contain carbon that would be irrecoverable on this timescale if lost and must be protected to meet climate goals.

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Metadata

Authors
Goldstein, A., Turner, W. R., Spawn, S. A., Anderson-Teixeira, K. J., Cook-Patton, S., Fargione, J., Gibbs, H. K., Griscom, B., Hewson, J. H., Howard, J. F., Ledezma, J. C., Page, S., Koh, L. P., Rockström, J., Sanderman, J., & Hole, D. G.
Venue
Nature Climate Change
Published
2020-03-31
Volume
10
Issue
4
Pages
287-295
ISSN
  • 1758-678X (ISSN-L)
  • 1758-6798
OpenAlex
W3014318699
Cited by
298
References
72
FWCI
15.73
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Protecting irrecoverable carbon in Earth’s ecosystems. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1038/s41558-020-0738-8
The paper
Goldstein, A., Turner, W. R., Spawn, S. A., Anderson-Teixeira, K. J., Cook-Patton, S., Fargione, J., Gibbs, H. K., Griscom, B., Hewson, J. H., Howard, J. F., Ledezma, J. C., Page, S., Koh, L. P., Rockström, J., Sanderman, J., & Hole, D. G. (2020). Protecting irrecoverable carbon in Earth’s ecosystems. Nature Climate Change. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0738-8

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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.