Climate change, human impacts, and carbon sequestration in China
Open accessAbstract
The scale of economic growth in China during the past three decades is unprecedented in modern human history. China is now the world’s second largest economic entity, next to the United States. However, this fast economic growth puts China’s environment under increasing stresses. China can be viewed as a massive “laboratory” with complex interactions between socioeconomic and natural systems, providing an excellent opportunity to examine how environmental changes and intensive human economic activities influence natural systems. This special feature explores the impacts of climate change and human activities on the structure and functioning of ecosystems, with emphasis on quantifying the magnitude and distribution of carbon (C) pools and C sequestration in China’s terrestrial ecosystems. We also document how species diversity, species traits, and nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) stoichiometry mediate ecosystem C pool and vegetation production. This overview paper introduces the background and scientific significance of the research project, presents the underlying conceptual framework, and summarizes the major findings of each paper. Reducing CO2 emissions to mitigate regional and global climate change is one of the most challenging issues facing humanity (1). At present, China has the largest annual CO2 emissions in the world ( Upper graph in Fig. 1), placing it in the spotlight of efforts to manage global C emissions and design climate-change policy. It is therefore critical to improve our understanding of the C budget and its dynamics in China to mitigate climate change at both regional and global scales. Fig. 1. Evolution in total national GDP, population, and fossil fuel CO2 emissions, together with trajectory of the national policies in China between 1945 and 2015. ( Upper ) GDP, population, and CO2 emissions. The CO2 emissions data were from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (cdiac.ess-dive.lbl.gov/), and population and GDP data from the World Bank (https://data.worldbank.org/country/). ( Lower ) National … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: jyfang{at}urban.pku.edu.cn, fangjingyun{at}ibcas.ac.cn, or terry.chapin{at}alaska.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
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A favorable climate (especially high precipitation) is directly associated with high biomass production and species diversity, which could promote SOC stock, offsetting negative impact of favorable climate on SOC.
“A favorable climate (especially high precipitation) was directly associated with high biomass production and species diversity, which could promote soil organic carbon (SOC) stock, thus offsetting the negative impact of favorable climate on SOC.158,159”
From Technologies and perspectives for achieving carbon neutrality (2021) · cites this paper as [159]
Terrestrial ecosystems could increase C sequestration readily by restoring vegetation and incorporating organic soil amendments.
“Terrestrial ecosystems could increase C sequestration readily by restoring vegetation and incorporating organic soil amendments.150, 151, 152”
From Technologies and perspectives for achieving carbon neutrality (2021) · cites this paper as [150]
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Technologies and perspectives for achieving carbon neutrality
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Plant diversity enhances productivity and soil carbon storage
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- Authors
- Fang, J., Yu, G., Liu, L., Hu, S., & Chapin, F. S.
- Affiliations
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Nanjing Agricultural University (CN)
- University of Alaska Fairbanks (US)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2018-04-16
- Volume
- 115
- Issue
- 16
- Pages
- 4015-4020
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC5910806
- OpenAlex
- W2800485765
- Cited by
- 767
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 82 · 2025: 120 · 2024: 138 · 2023: 133 · 2022: 122 · 2021: 66 · 2020: 48 · 2019: 47 · 2018: 11
- FWCI
- 139.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Institute of Botany, CAS Institutional Repository (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Forest, Soil, and Plant Ecology in China
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Environmental Changes in China
- Keywords
- climate change, anthropogenic impacts, carbon sequestration, terrestrial ecosystems, carbon pools, CO2 emissions, economic growth, species diversity, species traits, nitrogen stoichiometry, phosphorus stoichiometry, vegetation production, ecosystem structure and function, China
- MeSH terms
- Agriculture, Carbon, China, Conservation of Natural Resources, Environmental Pollution, Humans, Human Activities, Agrochemicals, Ecosystem, Climate Change, Carbon Sequestration, Plant Dispersal
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