Grassland ecosystems play an essential role in climate regulation through carbon (C) storage in plant and soil. But, anthropogenic practices such as livestock grazing, grazing related excreta nitrogen (N) deposition, and manure/fertilizer N application have the potential to reduce the effectiveness of grassland C sink through increased nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) emissions. Although the effect of anthropogenic activities on net greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes in grassland ecosystems have been investigated at local to regional scales, estimates of net GHG balance at the global scale remains uncertain. With the data-model framework integrating empirical estimates of livestock CH4emissions with process-based modeling estimates of land CO2, N2O and CH4fluxes, we examined the overall global warming potential (GWP) of grassland ecosystems during 1961–2010. We then quantified the grassland-specific and regional variations to identify hotspots of GHG fluxes. Our results show that, over a 100-year time horizon, grassland ecosystems sequestered a cumulative total of 113.9 Pg CO2-eq in plant and soil, but then released 91.9 Pg CO2-eq to the atmosphere, offsetting 81% of the net CO2sink. We also found large grassland-specific variations in net GHG fluxes, with
Inland waters are important sources of the greenhouse gasses (GHGs) carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) to the atmosphere. In the framework of the second phase of the REgional Carbon Cycle Assessment and Processes (RECCAP‐2) initiative, we synthesize existing estimates of GHG emissions from streams, rivers, lakes and reservoirs, and homogenize them with regard to underlying global maps of water surface area distribution and the effects of seasonal ice cover. We then produce regionalized estimates of GHG emissions over 10 extensive land regions. According to our synthesis, inland water GHG emissions have a global warming potential of an equivalent emission of 13.5 (9.9–20.1) and 8.3 (5.7–12.7) Pg CO2‐eq. yr−1at a 20 and 100 years horizon (GWP20and GWP100), respectively. Contributions of CO2dominate GWP100, with rivers being the largest emitter. For GWP20, lakes and rivers are equally important emitters, and the warming potential of CH4is more important than that of CO2. Contributions from N2O are about two orders of magnitude lower. Normalized to the area of RECCAP‐2 regions, S‐America and SE‐Asia show the highest emission rates, dominated by riverine CO2emissions.
more » « less- Award ID(s):
- 2243001
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10412858
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Global Biogeochemical Cycles
- Volume:
- 37
- Issue:
- 5
- ISSN:
- 0886-6236
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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