A Comprehensive Assessment of Anthropogenic and Natural Sources and Sinks of Australasia's Carbon Budget

Regional carbon budget assessments attribute and track changes in carbon sources and sinks and support the development and monitoring the efficacy of climate policies. We present a comprehensive assessment of the natural and anthropogenic carbon (C-CO2) fluxes for Australasia as a whole, as well as for Australia and New Zealand individually, for the period from 2010 to 2019, using two approaches: bottom-up methods that integrate flux estimates from land-surface models, data-driven models, and inventory estimates; and top-down atmospheric inversions based on satellite and in situ measurements. Our bottom-up decadal assessment suggests that Australasia's net carbon balance was close to carbon neutral (−0.4 ± 77.0 TgC yr−1). However, substantial uncertainties remain in this estimate, primarily driven by the large spread between our regional terrestrial biosphere simulations and predictions from global ecosystem models. Within Australasia, Australia was a net source of 38.2 ± 75.8 TgC yr−1, and New Zealand was a net CO2 sink of −38.6 ± 13.4 TgC yr−1. The top-down approach using atmospheric CO2 inversions indicates that fluxes derived from the latest satellite retrievals are consistent within the range of uncertainties with Australia's bottom-up budget. For New Zealand, the best agreement was found with a national scale flux inversion estimate based on in situ measurements, which provide better constrained of fluxes than satellite flux inversions. This study marks an important step toward a more comprehensive understanding of the net CO2 balance in both countries, facilitating the improvement of carbon accounting approaches and strategies to reduce emissions

Effects of temperature at constant air dew point on leaf carboxylation efficiency and CO 2 compensation point of different leaf types

The effect of temperature on photosynthesis at constant water-vapor pressure in the air was investigated using two sclerophyll species, Arbutus unedo and Quercus suber , and one mesophytic species, Spinacia oleracea . Photosynthesis and transpiration were measured over a range of temperatures, 20–39° C. The external concentration of CO 2 was varied from 340 μbar to near CO 2 compensation. The initial slope (carboxylation efficiency, CE) of the photosynthetic response to intercellular CO 2 concentration, the CO 2 compensation point (Γ), and the extrapolated rate of CO 2 released into CO 2 -free air ( R i ) were calculated. At an external CO 2 concentration of 320–340 μbar CO 2 , photosynthesis decreased with temperature in all species. The effect of temperature on Γ was similar in all species. While CE in S. oleracea changed little with temperature, CE decreased by 50% in Q. suber as temperature increased from 25 to 34° C. Arbutus unedo also exhibited a decrease in CE at higher temperatures but not as marked as Q. suber . The absolut value of R i increased with temperature in S. oleracea , while changing little or decreasing in the sclerophylls. Variations in Γ and R i of the sclerophyll species are not consistent with greater increase of respiration with temperature in the light in these species compared with S. oleracea .Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47470/1/425_2004_Article_BF00397389.pd

A conceptual model of carbon stabilisation based on patterns observed in different soils

In principle, greenhouse gas emissions can be offset by increasing soil carbon stocks. Full utilisation of that potential, however, requires a good understanding of the controls on carbon stocks to identify factors that can be modified through management changes and distinguish those from factors that are inherent soil properties that cannot be modified. Here, we present a conceptual model of protected (or stabilised) carbon stocks in soils based on observations from two farms in New Zealand, and from a combined soils data set from observations from throughout New Zealand. These data showed that1) When other factors, such as climate, plant cover and pasture management, were identical, soil carbon stocks were highly, and linearly correlated with the soil's specific surface area estimated from soil water adsorption.2) The slopes of these relationships decreased with soil depth.3) Extrapolation of the relationships to zero specific surface area resulted in relatively small intercepts on the soil carbon axis. These intercepts decreased with soil depth.4) The intercepts were considered to correspond to unprotected labile carbon, with highest contents near the soils surface where most carbon inputs are received by soils.5) Together, these observations implied that virtually all protected carbon in the analysed soils was protected by the soil matrix rather than biochemically, and that mineral surface area was the functionally relevant key attribute that defined the soils' protective capacity.6) It implied that protected organic carbon, Cp, in a soil can be described as, where k is a simple constant, is the total carbon inflow rate into the soil, is specific surface area, and f(T, W, pH, Al, …) is a specific turn-over rate of protected carbon as a function of temperature, soil water, pH, aluminium concentration, or any other factors apart from soil texture that may affect soil-carbon turn-over rates.These observations improve our understanding of the important carbon-protection mechanisms in the soil, with significant implications for the optimal manipulation of carbon input rates into different soils to maximise overall soil carbon storage. They imply that overall carbon storage of soils could be enhanced by physically transferring any available carbon from soils with low to soils with high specific surface areas

Temporary Carbon Sequestration Cannot Prevent Climate Change

biosphere, carbon accounting, carbon cycle, carbon sink, impacts, mitigation, permanence, tonne-year accounting,