期刊名称:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN:0027-8424
电子版ISSN:1091-6490
出版年度:2014
卷号:111
期号:47
页码:E5016-E5022
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1419550111
语种:English
出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要:SignificanceLand use is a principal driver of carbon emissions, either directly through land change processes such as deforestation or indirectly via transportation and industries supporting natural resource use. To minimize the effects of land use on the climate system, natural ecosystems are needed to offset gross emissions through carbon sequestration. Managing this critically important service must be achieved tactically if it is to be cost-effective. We have developed a high-resolution carbon mapping approach that can identify biogeographically explicit targets for carbon storage enhancement among all landholders within a country. Applying our approach to Peru reveals carbon threats and protections, as well as major opportunities for using ecosystems to sequester carbon. Our approach is scalable to any tropical forest country. Terrestrial carbon conservation can provide critical environmental, social, and climate benefits. Yet, the geographically complex mosaic of threats to, and opportunities for, conserving carbon in landscapes remain largely unresolved at national scales. Using a new high-resolution carbon mapping approach applied to Peru, a megadiverse country undergoing rapid land use change, we found that at least 0.8 Pg of aboveground carbon stocks are at imminent risk of emission from land use activities. Map-based information on the natural controls over carbon density, as well as current ecosystem threats and protections, revealed three biogeographically explicit strategies that fully offset forthcoming land-use emissions. High-resolution carbon mapping affords targeted interventions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in rapidly developing tropical nations.