Abstract
Tropical and subtropical areas comprise about 23% of the total land area (960 Mha) of China. Of this, about 40% is in forests, 20% is in cropland and another 20% is wasteland. Preliminary estimates of overall sources and sinks of carbon dioxide indicate that current agricultural activities probably constitute a net sink. We estimate that improved agricultural management and wasteland reclamation have the potential to sequester an additional 1.9 Tg CO2-C y-1 or more, largely through increasing productivity and C inputs to soils and conversion of wasteland to agricultural production. We estimate that current forestry activities in the region could sequester about 7 Tg CO2-C y-1. There is also a large potential for increased C sequestration and fossil fuel offsets by conversion of wasteland to fuel wood plantations, on the order of 30-70 Tg C y-1. A number of practices for increasing mitigation of CO2 emissions in the forestry and agricultural sectors are presented.
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Zhong, L., Qi-Guo, Z. Carbon Dioxide Fluxes and Potential Mitigation in Agriculture and Forestry of Tropical and Subtropical China. Climatic Change 40, 119–133 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005394916248
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005394916248