Ecological restoration and rising CO2 enhance carbon sink, counteracting climate change in northeastern China

Abstract

Abstract The impact of climate change, rising CO2, land use/land cover change (LC) and land management (LM) on carbon cycle in terrestrial ecosystems has been widely reported. However, rare studies have been conducted to clarify the impact of climate change and rising CO2 on carbon sink contributed by ecological restoration projects (ERPs). To better understand the impact of climate change and rising CO2 on ERPs, we took the Beijing-Tianjin Sand Source Control Project (BTSSCP) zone as an example to set different scenarios to distinguish the confounding effects of these factors on regional carbon budget based on remote sensing data-driven model. Compared with business as usual (BAU), our results showed climate change caused carbon loss of 78.97 Tg. On the contrary, ERPs contributed approximately 199.88 Tg C sink in forest and grassland. Furthermore, rising CO2 also contributed an additional 107.80 Tg C sink. This study distinguished the individual effects of different factors, and clarified the net carbon sink contributed by ERPs and rising CO2 and their significance to enhance regional carbon sink and reverse adverse effects of climate change on carbon sink. Furthermore, ERPs can sequester carbon dioxide faster and more effectively compared with rising CO2.