The global carbon sink: a grassland perspective
Open accessAbstract
The challenge to identify the biospheric sinks for about half the total carbon emissions from fossil fuels must include a consideration of below‐ground ecosystem processes as well as those more easily measured above‐ground. Recent studies suggest that tropical grasslands and savannas may contribute more to the ‘missing sink’ than was previously appreciated, perhaps as much as 0.5 Pg (= 0.5 Gt) carbon per annum. The rapid increase in availability of productivity data facilitated by the Internet will be important for future scaling‐up of global change responses, to establish independent lines of evidence about the location and size of carbon sinks.
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Grassland is a potentially very large carbon sink.
“There is large uncertainty surrounding transitions from grassland, a potentially very large carbon sink [82] with a global land converge of 25% of the earth's land surface [83].”
From Land use change to bioenergy: A meta-analysis of soil carbon and GHG emissions (2015) · cites this paper as [82]
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Cited by 789
Research works printed but not linked: 12
- Breymeyer A, Hall DO, Melillo JM, Agren GI (eds) (1996) Global Change: effects on coniferous forests and grasslands. SCOPE 56. John Wiley, Chichester, 449 pp.
- Cramer W, Scurlock JMO, Olson RJ, Parton WJ, Prince SD et al. (1997) Net primary productivity: from sparse field observations to a consistent global data set for terrestrial biosphere models. In: Terrestrial Global Productivity; past, present, future (Mooney H, Saugier B & Roy J, eds). Academic Press, New York (in press).
- Eswaran H, van den Berg E, Reich P (1993) Organic carbon in soils of the world. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 57, 192-4.
- Hall DO, Ojima DS, Parton WJ, Scurlock JMO (1995) Response of temperate and tropical grasslands to CO 2 and climate change. Journal of Biogeography, 22, 537-47.
- Hall DO, Scurlock JMO (1991) Climate change and productivity of natural grasslands. Annals of Botany (Supplement), 67, 49-55.
- Lieth HFH (ed.) (1978) Patterns of Primary Productivity in the Biosphere. Hutchinson Ross, Stroudsberg, PA, 342pp.
- Lutz JL, Gifford RM (1995) Carbon storage and productivity of a carbon dioxide enriched nitrogen limited grass sward after one year's growth. Journal of Biogeography, 22, 227-233.
- Melillo JM, Prentice IC, Farquhar GD, Schulze E-D, Sala OE (1996) Terrestrial biotic responses to environmental change and feedbacks to climate. In: Climate Change 1995: the science of climate change (eds, J.T. Houghton et al.), pp. 447-481. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
- Prince SD (1991) A model of remote sensing of primary production for use with coarse-resolution satellite data. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 12, 1313-1330.
- Scholes RJ, Hall DO (1996) The carbon budget of tropical savannas, woodlands and grasslands. In: Global Change: effects on coniferous forests and grasslands (eds A. Breymeyer et al.), SCOPE 56. pp. 69-100.
- Tate KR, Parsholtam A, Ross DJ (1995) Soil carbon storage and turnover in temperate forests and grasslands -a New Zealand perspective. Journal of Biogeography, 22, 695-700.
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- Authors
- Scurlock, J. M. O., & Hall, D. O.
- Affiliations
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (US)
- King's College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Scurlock, J. M. O.
- Venue
- Global Change Biology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1998-02
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 229-233
- ISSN
- 1354-1013 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2486
- OpenAlex
- W2051267215
- Cited by
- 789
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 35 · 2023: 57 · 2022: 56 · 2021: 53 · 2020: 51 · 2019: 55 · 2018: 45 · 2017: 39 · 2016: 56 · 2015: 32 · 2014: 44 · 2013: 37 · 2012: 24
- FWCI
- 5.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Global Change Biology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Land Use and Ecosystem Services
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
- Keywords
- tropical grasslands, savanna, belowground carbon, soil carbon, carbon sequestration, fossil fuel emissions
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