Continental scale estimastes of the biotic carbon flux from land cover change: 1850 to 1980

Abstract

This document describes a Numeric Data Package (NDP) that contains annual carbon flux estimates from land cover change for nine regions of the world (i.e., North America, Europe, the Former Soviet Union, Pacific Developed Region, China, South and Central America, North Africa-Middle East, Tropical Africa, and South and Southeast Asia). Annual rates of land cover change and vegetation-soil response curves for each region and ecosystem are included in the database. The vegetation-soil curves are used in a bookkeeping carbon model to estimate the carbon flux with the atmosphere from the clearing or degradation of vegetation, cultivation of soils, decay of dead vegetation, and the recovery of abandoned lands. The model calculates the net flux of carbon in each region based on land cover change rates and vegetation-soil response curves for the period 1850 to 1980 (a few regions have WA cover records beginning in 1700 and carbon flux estimates ending in 1990). These data were collected and modeled in an attempt to reduce the uncertainty associated with the magnitude and time course of the flux of carbon from terrestrial vegetation to the atmosphere.