Grassland Carbon Change in Northern China under Historical and Future Land Use and Land Cover Change

Abstract

Land use and land cover (LULC) change has greatly altered ecosystem carbon storage and exerted an enormous impact on terrestrial carbon cycling. Characterizing its impact on ecosystem carbon storage is critical to balance regional carbon budgets and make land use decisions. However, due to the availability of LULC data and the strong variability in LULC change, uncertainty remains high in quantifying the effect of LULC change on the historical and future carbon stock. Based on four historical LULC maps and one future LULC projection, this study combined the Land Use and Carbon Scenario Simulator (LUCAS) with a process-based CENTURY model to evaluate the historical and future LULC change and its impact on grassland carbon storage from 1991 to 2050 in northern China. Results showed that grassland experienced a drastic decrease of 16.10 × 103 km2 before 2005, while agriculture and barren land increased by 16.91 × 103 km2 and 3.73 × 103 km2, respectively. After that, grassland was projected to increase, agriculture kept steady, and barren land decreased. LULC change has resulted in enormous total ecosystem carbon loss, mainly in agro-pasture areas; the maximum 8.54% of carbon loss happened in 2000, which was primarily attributed to agriculture to grassland, forest to grassland, grassland to agriculture, and grassland to barren. Before 2000, the grassland net biome productivity was projected to be −15.54 Tg C/yr and −2.69 Tg C/yr with and without LULC change. After 2001, the LULC change showed a positive impact on the grassland carbon balance, and the region was projected to be a carbon sink. Ecological projects have made a significant contribution to grassland carbon storage. The paper provides a framework to account for the effects of LULC change on ecosystem carbon and highlights the importance of improving grassland management in balancing the grassland carbon budget, which is helpful to understand the regional carbon budget and better inform local land use strategies.