IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v12y2021i1d10.1038_s41467-020-20406-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Climate warming from managed grasslands cancels the cooling effect of carbon sinks in sparsely grazed and natural grasslands

Author

Listed:
  • Jinfeng Chang

    (Université Paris-Saclay
    International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
    Zhejiang University)

  • Philippe Ciais

    (Université Paris-Saclay)

  • Thomas Gasser

    (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis)

  • Pete Smith

    (University of Aberdeen)

  • Mario Herrero

    (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization)

  • Petr Havlík

    (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis)

  • Michael Obersteiner

    (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis)

  • Bertrand Guenet

    (Université Paris-Saclay)

  • Daniel S. Goll

    (Université Paris-Saclay)

  • Wei Li

    (Université Paris-Saclay)

  • Victoria Naipal

    (Ludwig-Maximilian University)

  • Shushi Peng

    (Peking University)

  • Chunjing Qiu

    (Université Paris-Saclay)

  • Hanqin Tian

    (Auburn University)

  • Nicolas Viovy

    (Université Paris-Saclay)

  • Chao Yue

    (Northwest A&F University)

  • Dan Zhu

    (Université Paris-Saclay)

Abstract

Grasslands absorb and release carbon dioxide (CO2), emit methane (CH4) from grazing livestock, and emit nitrous oxide (N2O) from soils. Little is known about how the fluxes of these three greenhouse gases, from managed and natural grasslands worldwide, have contributed to past climate change, or the roles of managed pastures versus natural grasslands. Here, global trends and regional patterns of the full greenhouse gas balance of grasslands are estimated for the period 1750 to 2012. A new spatially explicit land surface model is applied, to separate the direct effects of human activities from land management and the indirect effects from climate change, increasing CO2 and regional changes in nitrogen deposition. Direct human management activities are simulated to have caused grasslands to switch from a sink to a source of greenhouse gas, because of increased livestock numbers and accelerated conversion of natural lands to pasture. However, climate change drivers contributed a net carbon sink in soil organic matter, mainly from the increased productivity of grasslands due to increased CO2 and nitrogen deposition. The net radiative forcing of all grasslands is currently close to neutral, but has been increasing since the 1960s. Here, we show that the net global climate warming caused by managed grassland cancels the net climate cooling from carbon sinks in sparsely grazed and natural grasslands. In the face of future climate change and increased demand for livestock products, these findings highlight the need to use sustainable management to preserve and enhance soil carbon storage in grasslands and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from managed grasslands.

Suggested Citation

  • Jinfeng Chang & Philippe Ciais & Thomas Gasser & Pete Smith & Mario Herrero & Petr Havlík & Michael Obersteiner & Bertrand Guenet & Daniel S. Goll & Wei Li & Victoria Naipal & Shushi Peng & Chunjing Q, 2021. "Climate warming from managed grasslands cancels the cooling effect of carbon sinks in sparsely grazed and natural grasslands," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-20406-7
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20406-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20406-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-020-20406-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zijie Shen & Liguo Xin, 2022. "Characterizing Carbon Emissions and the Associations with Socio-Economic Development in Chinese Cities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-11, October.
    2. Yunpeng Qiu & Yi Zhang & Kangcheng Zhang & Xinyu Xu & Yunfeng Zhao & Tongshuo Bai & Yexin Zhao & Hao Wang & Xiongjie Sheng & Sean Bloszies & Christopher J. Gillespie & Tangqing He & Yang Wang & Huaiha, 2024. "Intermediate soil acidification induces highest nitrous oxide emissions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    3. Selma Bultan & Julia E. M. S. Nabel & Kerstin Hartung & Raphael Ganzenmüller & Liang Xu & Sassan Saatchi & Julia Pongratz, 2022. "Tracking 21st century anthropogenic and natural carbon fluxes through model-data integration," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.
    4. Xinyue Dong & Zeyu Cao & Yi Guo & Jingyuan Lin & Hanze Yan & Mengyu Li & Peng Yao, 2024. "Assessment of Carbon Storage in a Multifunctional Landscape: A Case Study of Central Asia," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-21, June.
    5. Edoardo Bellini & Raphaël Martin & Giovanni Argenti & Nicolina Staglianò & Sergi Costafreda-Aumedes & Camilla Dibari & Marco Moriondo & Gianni Bellocchi, 2023. "Opportunities for Adaptation to Climate Change of Extensively Grazed Pastures in the Central Apennines (Italy)," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-22, January.
    6. Wells, Kaylee K., 2022. "The Use Value of Grasslands in the Tallgrass Prairie Region of the United States," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322379, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Yue Wang & Imke J. M. Boer & U. Martin Persson & Raimon Ripoll-Bosch & Christel Cederberg & Pierre J. Gerber & Pete Smith & Corina E. Middelaar, 2023. "Risk to rely on soil carbon sequestration to offset global ruminant emissions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-20406-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.