Projected global warming-induced terrestrial ecosystem carbon across China under SSP scenarios

Terrestrial ecosystem carbon sequestration is one of the most economically feasible and important ways to mitigate the increase of atmospheric CO2 concentration. China's terrestrial ecosystems have a huge carbon sequestration potential. Therefore, the study on the carbon sequestration potential of vegetation ecosystems is related to the smooth implementation of China's carbon neutrality strategy in 2060. Based on the CMIP6 shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) scenarios, changes in the vegetation aboveground biomass carbon (ABC) were estimated using the Lund-Potsdam-Jena Dynamic Global Vegetation Model (LPJ) model (1981-2060) for China. Subsequently, the vegetation ABC dynamics were analyzed under three future scenarios based on the traditional Multi-Model Ensemble Mean (MME) method for different eco-regions in China. We found that the vegetation ABC density was 32.38 Mg/ha in China with an increasing trend of 53.99% from 1981 to 2014. The vegetation ABC density was higher in sub-regions I, II, V, and VI. Due to the main forest carbon sinks was appeared in Southwest, Northeast and Southeast of China. However, the water conditions are poor in sub-regions III, VII, and VIII, and mostly covered by desert and steppe vegetation where the productivity level is low. Under SSP1-2.6 and SSP2-4.5 scenarios, the vegetation ABC would show a decreasing trend from 2015 to 2040 with a reduction rate of 4.34% and 4.60%, but exhibit an increasing trend from 2041 to 2060 with a growth rate of 1.46% and 0.97%. While the vegetation ABC would show a decreasing trend during 2015 to 2060 with a reduction rate of 14.78% under SSP5-8.5 scenarios. Additionally, temperature and precipitation are main factors influencing the vegetation ABC. In the future scenario, due to higher temperatures resulted in the decrease of vegetation ABC in the cold temperate humid and temperate humid/sub-humid regions. However, in the northwestern arid region and Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region may have been due to relatively low temperatures in the region, warming may address this limitation and lead to a general increase in ABC.

Automated summary

Terrestrial ecosystem carbon sequestration is essential for mitigating atmospheric CO2 concentrations, and China has a significant potential in this regard. The study reveals that the carbon sequestration potential of vegetation ecosystems in China, particularly in the Southwest, Northeast, and Southeast regions, is substantial. Future climate scenarios indicate that temperature and precipitation are major factors influencing vegetation carbon sequestration. While higher temperatures may lead to a decrease in carbon sequestration in some regions, lower temperatures in the northwestern arid region and Qinghai-Tibet Plateau may contribute to an overall increase in carbon sequestration.