A mid-20^th century inventory-based estimate of global terrestrial vegetation carbon stocks

ABSTRACT

Terrestrial biomass carbon stocks (BCS) play a vital role in the climate system, but benchmarked estimates prior to the late twentieth century remain scarce. Here, by making use of an early global forest resource assessment and harmonizing information on land use and carbon densities, we establish a global BCS account for the year 1950. Our best-guess BCS estimate is 450.2 PgC (median of all modulations: 517.8 PgC, range: 443.7–584.0 PgC), with ecosystems in Southern America and Western Africa storing c. 27 and 16% of the total respectively. Our estimates are in line with land change emissions estimates and suggest a reduction in BCS of 8–29% compared to the median, with losses in tropical subcontinents partially offset by gains in northern subcontinents. Our study demonstrates an approach to reconstruct global BCS by triangulating different data sources and extends the study of global BCS accounts further back into the twentieth century.

KEYWORDS:

• Global land use
• global land change
• carbon stocks
• vegetation carbon
• forest transition
• forest carbon stocks
• global forest inventory
• FRA

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/1747423X.2022.2112779

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the European Research Council (ERC-2017-StG 757995 HEFT & ERC-2016-StG 677140 MIDLAND), the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, KA 4815/1-1) and the Austrian Climate Research Programme. (ACRP13 – UNRAVEL - KR20AC0K18081). MB was additionally supported by the OeAD Marietta Blau Stipendium at UCLouvain.