Simulated carbon emissions from land-use change are substantially enhanced by accounting for agricultural management
It is over three decades since a large terrestrial carbon sink (ST)was first reported. The magnitude of the net sink is now relatively well known, and its importance for dampening atmospheric CO2 accumulation, and hence climate change, widely recognised. But the contributions of underlying processes are not well defined, particularly the role of emissions from land-use change (ELUC) versus the biospheric carbon uptake (SL; ST = SL − ELUC). One key aspect of the interplay of ELUC and SL is the role of agricultural processes in land-use change emissions, which has not yet been clearly quantified at the global scale. Here we assess the effect of representing agricultural land management in a dynamic global vegetation model.