title: Impact of land use type conversion on carbon storage in terrestrial ecosystems of China: A spatial-temporal perspective.
abstract: Our work is the first study to explore the national and provincial composite carbon storage variations in terrestrial ecosystems of China caused by the entire flows of land use type conversion (LUTC). Only water body was excluded. The results indicated that terrestrial ecosystems of China lost 219 Tg-C due to LUTC from 1980 to 1995, and the amount was 60 Tg-C during the period 1995-2010. Despite the decrease in the total amount, carbon losses from LUTC intensified, but most of the losses were balanced by the opposite conversions. Our analyses also revealed that LUTCs in China were becoming detrimental to carbon reduction, mainly due to the insufficient increase of forest land to meet the growing demand for carbon absorption, the accelerating disappearance of grassland and the rapid expansion of settlements. More than 50% of the carbon storage variations for a single LUTC flow concentrated in several provinces. To improve China's LUTC status from the aspect of low-carbon, Heilongjiang, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Qinghai, Xinjiang and coastal regions, such as Shandong, Jiangsu and Liaoning, should be dealt with first according to their conditions. This study can be helpful to planners, policy makers and scholars concerned about carbon reduction in China.
authors.affiliation: 1] School of Geographic &Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, Jiangsu Province, China [2] School of Urban and Resources Sciences, Jinling College of Nanjing University, Nanjing 210089, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: 1] School of Geographic &Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, Jiangsu Province, China [2] School of Urban and Resources Sciences, Jinling College of Nanjing University, Nanjing 210089, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Xianjin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: School of Geographic &Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Xiaowei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chuai
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Blindern 0316, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Information Center, Nanjing 210013, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.affiliation: 1] School of Geographic &Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, Jiangsu Province, China [2] School of Urban and Resources Sciences, Jinling College of Nanjing University, Nanjing 210089, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Junzhong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tan