Carbon Sequestration in China Over the Past Century

Authors Mao et al. (2009) used a modified version of the Sheffield Dynamic Global Vegetation Model described by Woodward and Lomas (2004) to study changes in the structure, composition and carbon storage of vegetation and soils throughout all of China in response to changes in climate and atmospheric CO₂ concentration that occurred between 1901 and 2000.

Mao et al. report that their modeling exercise suggested that "during the past 100 years a combination of increasing CO₂ with historical temperature and precipitation variability in continental China have caused the total vegetation carbon storage to increase by 2.04 Pg C, with 2.07 Pg C gained in the vegetation biomass but 0.03 Pg C lost from the organic soil carbon matter." They also found that "the increasing CO₂ concentration in the 20th century is primarily responsible for the increase of the total potential vegetation carbon." However, because the biological effects of temperature and precipitation were negative, the historical increase in the air's CO₂ content was actually totally responsible for the net storage of carbon in China's terrestrial vegetation and soil over the 20th century, since without the aerial fertilization effect of CO₂, there would have been a net loss of carbon that exceeded in absolute value the net gain that ultimately prevailed.

Additional References
Woodward, F.I. and Lomas, M.R. 2004. Vegetation dynamics -- Simulation responses to climatic change. Biological Reviews 79: 643-670.