Weak northern and strong tropical land carbon uptake from vertical profiles of atmospheric CO2

Britton B. Stephens; Kevin R. Gurney; Pieter P. Tans; Colm Sweeney; Wouter Peters; Lori Bruhwiler; Philippe Ciais; Michel Ramonet; Philippe Bousquet; Takakiyo Nakazawa; Shuji Aoki; Toshinobu Machida; Gen Inoue; Nikolay Vinnichenko; Jon Lloyd; Armin Jordan; Martin Heimann; Olga Shibistova; Ray L. Langenfelds; L. Paul Steele; Roger J. Francey; A. Scott Denning

doi:10.1126/science.1137004

Weak northern and strong tropical land carbon uptake from vertical profiles of atmospheric CO₂

Britton B. Stephens
, Kevin R. Gurney
, Pieter P. Tans
, Colm Sweeney
, Wouter Peters
, Lori Bruhwiler
, Philippe Ciais
, Michel Ramonet
, Philippe Bousquet
, Takakiyo Nakazawa
, Shuji Aoki
, Toshinobu Machida
, Gen Inoue
, Nikolay Vinnichenko
, Jon Lloyd
, Armin Jordan
, Martin Heimann
, Olga Shibistova
, Ray L. Langenfelds
, L. Paul Steele

Roger J. Francey, A. Scott Denning

Purdue University
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Lab. Sci. du Climat et de l'Environ.
Tohoku University
National Institute for Environmental Studies of Japan
Nagoya University
Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring
University of Leeds
Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
RAS - Sukachev Institute of Forest, Siberian Branch
CSIRO
Colorado State University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

633 Scopus citations

Abstract

Measurements of midday vertical atmospheric CO₂ distributions reveal annual-mean vertical CO₂ gradients that are inconsistent with atmospheric models that estimate a large transfer of terrestrial carbon from tropical to northern latitudes. The three models that most closely reproduce the observed annual-mean vertical CO₂ gradients estimate weaker northern uptake of -1.5 petagrams of carbon per year (Pg C year^-1) and weaker tropical emission of +0.1 Pg C year^-1 compared with previous consensus estimates of -2.4 and +1.8 Pg C year^-1, respectively. This suggests that northern terrestrial uptake of industrial CO₂ emissions plays a smaller role than previously thought and that, after subtracting land-use emissions, tropical ecosystems may currently be strong sinks for CO₂.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1732-1735
Number of pages	4
Journal	Science
Volume	316
Issue number	5832
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1137004
State	Published - Jun 22 2007

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Stephens, B. B., Gurney, K. R., Tans, P. P., Sweeney, C., Peters, W., Bruhwiler, L., Ciais, P., Ramonet, M., Bousquet, P., Nakazawa, T., Aoki, S., Machida, T., Inoue, G., Vinnichenko, N., Lloyd, J., Jordan, A., Heimann, M., Shibistova, O., Langenfelds, R. L., ... Denning, A. S. (2007). Weak northern and strong tropical land carbon uptake from vertical profiles of atmospheric CO₂. Science, 316(5832), 1732-1735. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1137004

@article{6548dc00d36d466783d7c0cfc87fb0ad,

title = "Weak northern and strong tropical land carbon uptake from vertical profiles of atmospheric CO2",

abstract = "Measurements of midday vertical atmospheric CO2 distributions reveal annual-mean vertical CO2 gradients that are inconsistent with atmospheric models that estimate a large transfer of terrestrial carbon from tropical to northern latitudes. The three models that most closely reproduce the observed annual-mean vertical CO2 gradients estimate weaker northern uptake of -1.5 petagrams of carbon per year (Pg C year-1) and weaker tropical emission of +0.1 Pg C year-1 compared with previous consensus estimates of -2.4 and +1.8 Pg C year-1, respectively. This suggests that northern terrestrial uptake of industrial CO2 emissions plays a smaller role than previously thought and that, after subtracting land-use emissions, tropical ecosystems may currently be strong sinks for CO2.",

author = "Stephens, \{Britton B.\} and Gurney, \{Kevin R.\} and Tans, \{Pieter P.\} and Colm Sweeney and Wouter Peters and Lori Bruhwiler and Philippe Ciais and Michel Ramonet and Philippe Bousquet and Takakiyo Nakazawa and Shuji Aoki and Toshinobu Machida and Gen Inoue and Nikolay Vinnichenko and Jon Lloyd and Armin Jordan and Martin Heimann and Olga Shibistova and Langenfelds, \{Ray L.\} and Steele, \{L. Paul\} and Francey, \{Roger J.\} and Denning, \{A. Scott\}",

year = "2007",

month = jun,

day = "22",

doi = "10.1126/science.1137004",

language = "English",

volume = "316",

pages = "1732--1735",

journal = "Science",

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publisher = "American Association for the Advancement of Science",

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Stephens, BB, Gurney, KR, Tans, PP, Sweeney, C, Peters, W, Bruhwiler, L, Ciais, P, Ramonet, M, Bousquet, P, Nakazawa, T, Aoki, S, Machida, T, Inoue, G, Vinnichenko, N, Lloyd, J, Jordan, A, Heimann, M, Shibistova, O, Langenfelds, RL, Steele, LP, Francey, RJ & Denning, AS 2007, 'Weak northern and strong tropical land carbon uptake from vertical profiles of atmospheric CO₂', Science, vol. 316, no. 5832, pp. 1732-1735. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1137004

TY - JOUR

T1 - Weak northern and strong tropical land carbon uptake from vertical profiles of atmospheric CO2

AU - Stephens, Britton B.

AU - Gurney, Kevin R.

AU - Tans, Pieter P.

AU - Sweeney, Colm

AU - Peters, Wouter

AU - Bruhwiler, Lori

AU - Ciais, Philippe

AU - Ramonet, Michel

AU - Bousquet, Philippe

AU - Nakazawa, Takakiyo

AU - Aoki, Shuji

AU - Machida, Toshinobu

AU - Inoue, Gen

AU - Vinnichenko, Nikolay

AU - Lloyd, Jon

AU - Jordan, Armin

AU - Heimann, Martin

AU - Shibistova, Olga

AU - Langenfelds, Ray L.

AU - Steele, L. Paul

AU - Francey, Roger J.

AU - Denning, A. Scott

PY - 2007/6/22

Y1 - 2007/6/22

N2 - Measurements of midday vertical atmospheric CO2 distributions reveal annual-mean vertical CO2 gradients that are inconsistent with atmospheric models that estimate a large transfer of terrestrial carbon from tropical to northern latitudes. The three models that most closely reproduce the observed annual-mean vertical CO2 gradients estimate weaker northern uptake of -1.5 petagrams of carbon per year (Pg C year-1) and weaker tropical emission of +0.1 Pg C year-1 compared with previous consensus estimates of -2.4 and +1.8 Pg C year-1, respectively. This suggests that northern terrestrial uptake of industrial CO2 emissions plays a smaller role than previously thought and that, after subtracting land-use emissions, tropical ecosystems may currently be strong sinks for CO2.

AB - Measurements of midday vertical atmospheric CO2 distributions reveal annual-mean vertical CO2 gradients that are inconsistent with atmospheric models that estimate a large transfer of terrestrial carbon from tropical to northern latitudes. The three models that most closely reproduce the observed annual-mean vertical CO2 gradients estimate weaker northern uptake of -1.5 petagrams of carbon per year (Pg C year-1) and weaker tropical emission of +0.1 Pg C year-1 compared with previous consensus estimates of -2.4 and +1.8 Pg C year-1, respectively. This suggests that northern terrestrial uptake of industrial CO2 emissions plays a smaller role than previously thought and that, after subtracting land-use emissions, tropical ecosystems may currently be strong sinks for CO2.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/34250798460

U2 - 10.1126/science.1137004

DO - 10.1126/science.1137004

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:34250798460

SN - 0036-8075

VL - 316

SP - 1732

EP - 1735

JO - Science

JF - Science

IS - 5832

ER -

Weak northern and strong tropical land carbon uptake from vertical profiles of atmospheric CO₂

Abstract

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