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Quantifying Terrestrial Ecosystem Carbon Dynamics in the **sha Watershed, Upper Yangtze, China from 1975 to 2000

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Abstract

Quantifying the spatial and temporal dynamics of carbon stocks in terrestrial ecosystems and carbon fluxes between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere is critical to our understanding of regional patterns of carbon budgets. Here we use the General Ensemble biogeochemical Modeling System to simulate the terrestrial ecosystem carbon dynamics in the **sha watershed of China’s upper Yangtze basin from 1975 to 2000, based on unique combinations of spatial and temporal dynamics of major driving forces, such as climate, soil properties, nitrogen deposition, and land use and land cover changes. Our analysis demonstrates that the **sha watershed ecosystems acted as a carbon sink during the period of 1975–2000, with an average rate of 0.36 Mg/ha/yr, primarily resulting from regional climate variation and local land use and land cover change. Vegetation biomass accumulation accounted for 90.6% of the sink, while soil organic carbon loss before 1992 led to a lower net gain of carbon in the watershed, and after that soils became a small sink. Ecosystem carbon sink/source patterns showed a high degree of spatial heterogeneity. Carbon sinks were associated with forest areas without disturbances, whereas carbon sources were primarily caused by stand-replacing disturbances. It is critical to adequately represent the detailed fast-changing dynamics of land use activities in regional biogeochemical models to determine the spatial and temporal evolution of regional carbon sink/source patterns.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the US National Science Foundation (project #0507948), and U.S. Geological survey's Geographic Analysis and Monitoring (GAM) and the Earth Surface Dynamics (ESD) programs. S. Zhao acknowledges the support of the outstanding young Fellow program of Peking University. Logistical support from Sichuan Agricultural University is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forestry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Shuqing Zhao, Runsheng Yin & David Rothstein

  2. ASRC Research and Technology Solutions, Contractor to USGS EROS Center, Sioux Falls, SD, 57198, USA

    Shuqing Zhao & Zhengpeng Li

  3. College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Bei**g, 100871, China

    Shuqing Zhao & Kun Tan

  4. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, Sioux Falls, SD, 57198, USA

    Shuguang Liu

  5. College of Forestry and Horticulture, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya’an, 625014, China

    Yulin Deng

  6. Institute of Geographic Sciences of Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 100101, China

    **angzheng Deng

  7. Center for Global Change and Earth Observations, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48823, USA

    Jiaguo Qi

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  1. Shuqing Zhao
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Correspondence to Shuqing Zhao.

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Zhao, S., Liu, S., Yin, R. et al. Quantifying Terrestrial Ecosystem Carbon Dynamics in the **sha Watershed, Upper Yangtze, China from 1975 to 2000. Environmental Management 45, 466–475 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-009-9285-9

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