A large carbon sink induced by the implementation of the largest afforestation program on Earth  

作　　者：Jiaojun Zhu Yirong Sun Xiao Zheng Kai Yang G.Geoff Wang Chaozong Xia Tao Sun Jinxin Zhang 

机构地区：[1]Qingyuan Forest CERN,CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management,Institute of Applied Ecology,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Shenyang 110016,China [2]Key Laboratory of Ecology and Management of Non-Commercial Forests,Shenyang 110016,Liaoning,China [3]Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation,Clemson University,Clemson,SC 29634-0317,USA [4]Academy of Forestry-Grassland Inventory and Planning,Beijing 100013,China

出　　处：《Ecological Processes》2023年第1期598-607,共10页生态过程（英文）

基　　金：supported by grants from National Key R&D Program of China(2020YFA0608100);CAS Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences(QYZDJ-SSW-DQC027);National Natural Science Foundation of China(31025007);the Knowledge Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences(KZCX1-YW-08-02);the Consultation Project supported by Divisions of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(2019-ZW09-A-032).

摘　　要：Background Three-North Afforestation Program(TNAP)in China is the largest ecological restoration project on Earth(ongoing from 1978 to 2050),harboring a huge area of newly planted forests,which provides a wealth of goods and ecosystem services that benefit society at levels ranging from region to East Asia.This project-induced carbon(C)sink has been expected to be large,but its size and location remain uncertain.Results In this study,we investigated the changes in the C stocks of biomass,soil C and the C accumulation ben-efited from the ecological effects in the project areas from 1978 to 2017 within the Three-North regions(4.069×10^(6)km^(2)),and evaluated its project-induced C sequestration.Using a combination of remote sensing images,field obser-vations and national forest inventory data,we estimated a total ecosystem sink of 47.06 Tg C per year(1 Tg=10^(12)g)increased by the TNAP implementation.Importantly,we first found that the C sink via the ecological effects of this project could contribute to a high proportion up to 15.94%,indicating a critical role of ecological effects in shaping the distribution of C stocks in the protective forests.This finding suggests that it is necessary to explicitly consider carbon sequestration benefited from the ecological effects when estimating C sink and parameterizing C models of the restoration projects in China and globally.Conclusions Our results update the estimates of C pools in the world’s largest ecological restoration project area,demonstrating that this project has substantially contributed to mitigating the climate change.

关 键 词：Three-North Afforestation Program Carbon sequestration Ecological restoration Carbon sequestration benefited from the ecological effects 

分 类 号：S718.5[农业科学—林学] X171.1[环境科学与工程—环境科学]