Abstract
We assessed how consequences of future land-use change may affect size and spatial shifts of C stocks under three potential trends in policy—(a) business-as-usual: continuation of land-use trends observed during the past 15 years; (b) extensification: full extensification of open-land; and (c) liberalization: full reforestation potential. The build-up times for the three scenarios are estimated at 30, 80 and 100 years, respectively. Potential C-stock change rates are derived from the literature. Whereas the business-as-usual scenario would cause marginal changes of 0.5%, liberalization would provoke a 13% increase in C stocks (+62 MtC). Gains of 24% would be expected for forests (+95 MtC), whereas open-land C stock would decrease 27% (−33 MtC). Extensification would lead to a C stock decrease of 3% (−12 MtC). Whereas forest C is expected to increase 12% (+36.5 MtC) at high elevations, stocks of open-land C would decline 38.5% (−48.5 MtC). Most affected are unfavorable grasslands, which increase in area (+59%) but contribute only 14.5% to the C stocks. C sinks would amount to 0.6 MtC y−1 assuming a build-up time of 100 years for the liberalization scenario. C stocks on the current forest area are increasing by 1 MtC y−1. The maximal total C sink of 1.6 MtC might thus suffice to compensate for agricultural greenhouse gases (2004: 1.4 Mt CO2–C equivalents), but corresponds only to 11–13% of the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission in Switzerland. Thus, even the largest of the expected terrestrial C stocks under liberalization will be small in comparison with current emissions of anthropogenic greenhouse gases.
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The authors thank Peter Pearman for carefully commenting and editing the article. Two anonymous reviewers strongly improved the manuscript with helpful suggestions and comments. This research was supported by the BioScene project funded by the European Union (EVK2-2001-00354).
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Bolliger, J., Hagedorn, F., Leifeld, J. et al. Effects of Land-Use Change on Carbon Stocks in Switzerland. Ecosystems 11, 895–907 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-008-9168-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-008-9168-6