title: Carbon emissions from land-use change and management in China between 1990 and 2010.
abstract: China has experienced enormous changes in land use in recent decades, which are largely driven by its unparalleled economic development. We analyze changes in vegetation and soil carbon storage between 1990 and 2010 resulting from combinations of land-use category conversion and management. Results demonstrate a major decline in grasslands (-6.85%; 20.83 × 106ha) and large increases in urban areas (+43.73%; 6.87 × 106ha), farmlands (+0.84%; 1.48 × 106ha), and forests (+0.67%; 1.52 × 106ha). The total soil organic carbon pool has been reduced by approximately 11.5 Tg of carbon (TgC) year-1, whereas 13.2 TgC year-1has accumulated in the biomass carbon pool because of land-use category change. Large carbon losses (approximately 101.8 TgC year-1) have resulted from land management failures, including forest fires and insect pests. Overall land-use change and land management have contributed about 1.45 Pg of carbon to the total carbon released from 1990 to 2010. Our results highlight the importance of improving land-use management, especially in view of the recently proposed expansion of urban areas in China.
authors.affiliation: School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Xianlin Avenue, Nanjing 210023, China.; Information Center of Jiangsu Province, Nanjing 210013, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.affiliation: School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Xianlin Avenue, Nanjing 210023, China.
authors.forename: Xianjin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Xianlin Avenue, Nanjing 210023, China.; Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Blindern, 0316 Oslo, Norway.; Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, 1431 Ås, Norway.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Xianlin Avenue, Nanjing 210023, China.
authors.forename: Xiaowei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chuai
authors.affiliation: School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Xianlin Avenue, Nanjing 210023, China.; School of Urban and Resources Sciences, Jinling Institute of Nanjing University, Nanjing 210089, China.
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Xianlin Avenue, Nanjing 210023, China.
authors.forename: Taiyang
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Xianlin Avenue, Nanjing 210023, China.
authors.forename: Zhigang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Xianlin Avenue, Nanjing 210023, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1605-0005
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China.
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8281-5224
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: UCL Department of Geography, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, U.K.
authors.forename: Julian R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Thompson
keywords: China; Land-use change; carbon storage; land-use management; terrestrial ecosystem