PARENT SESSION
Oral Session # 50: Forest Ecology III: Modeling; Nutrient Cycling.
Presiding: L Comas
Wednesday, August 6. 1:30 PM to 5:00 PM, SITCC Meeting Room 100.
The carbon cycle of terrestrial ecosystems in tropical and temperate Asia.
Tian, Hanqin*,1, 3, Melillo, Jerry2, Liu, Jiyuan3, Kicklighter, David2, Pan, Shufen1, 3, Yu, Fangfang1, 3, Liu, Mingliang1, 3, 1 The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 660453 Institute of Geographic Science and Natural Resource Research, Beijing, 100101, China2 The Ecosystem Center, Woods Hole, MA 02543
ABSTRACT- Newly developed data on three major determinants of the carbon storage in terrestrial ecosystems are used with the process-based Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (TEM) to simulate the combined effect of climate variability, increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration, and cropland establishment and abandonment on the exchange of CO2 between the atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems in tropical and temperate Asia. During 1860-1990, modeled results suggest that tropical and temperate Asia as a whole released 29.0 Pg C, which represents 50% of the global carbon release for this period. For the recent decades, tropical Asia acted as net carbon source, but temperate Asia acted as a net carbon sink. Substantial interannual and decadal variations occur in the annual net carbon storage estimated by TEM due to comparable variations in summer precipitation and its effect on net primary production. At longer time scales, land-use change appears to be the important control on carbon dynamics in this region.
Key words: Tropical ecosystem, Land use, Carbon cycle, Temperate forest