Abstract
<jats:title>Significance</jats:title>
<jats:p>
The role of soil erosion as a net sink or source of atmospheric CO
<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>
remains highly debated. This work quantifies national-scale land−atmosphere CO
<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>
fluxes induced by soil erosion. Severe water erosion in China has caused displacement of 180 ± 80 Mt C⋅y
<jats:sup>-1</jats:sup>
of soil organic carbon during the last two decades, and the consequent land−atmosphere CO
<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>
flux from water erosion is a net CO
<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>
sink of 45 ± 25 Mt C⋅y
<jats:sup>-1</jats:sup>
, equivalent to 8–37% of the terrestrial carbon sink previously assessed in China. This closes an important gap concerning large-scale estimation of lateral and vertical CO
<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>
fluxes from water erosion and highlights the importance of reducing uncertainty in assessing terrestrial carbon balance.
</jats:p>
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 6617-6622 |
Number of pages | 0 |
Journal | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
Volume | 113 |
Issue number | 24 |
Early online date | 31 May 2016 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 14 Jun 2016 |