The global carbon sink: a grassland perspective

Abstract

Abstract The challenge to identify the biospheric sinks for about half the total carbon emissions from fossil fuels must include a consideration of below‐ground ecosystem processes as well as those more easily measured above‐ground. Recent studies suggest that tropical grasslands and savannas may contribute more to the ‘missing sink’ than was previously appreciated, perhaps as much as 0.5 Pg (= 0.5 Gt) carbon per annum. The rapid increase in availability of productivity data facilitated by the Internet will be important for future scaling‐up of global change responses, to establish independent lines of evidence about the location and size of carbon sinks.