Forest expansion dominates China’s land carbon sink since 1980

Carbon budget accounting relies heavily on Food and Agriculture Organization land-use data reported by governments. Here we develop a new land-use and cover-change database for China, finding that differing historical survey methods biased China's reported data causing large errors in Food and Agriculture Organization databases. Land ecosystem model simulations driven with the new data reveal a strong carbon sink of 8.9 ± 0.8 Pg carbon from 1980 to 2019 in China, which was not captured in Food and Agriculture Organization data-based estimations due to biased land-use and cover-change signals. The land-use and cover-change in China, characterized by a rapid forest expansion from 1980 to 2019, contributed to…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  Awards: NNH10AN681, NNX10AG01A
• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: No. 32001166, 32001166, 42071031, 42130506
• NU
  Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology

  Awards: 2019r059, 003080, No. 2019r059
• NK
  National Key Research and Development Program of China

  Awards: 2021YFD2200405, No. 2021YFD2200405
• SF
  Startup Foundation for Introducing Talent of Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology

  Award: 003080
• OR
  Oak Ridge National Laboratory