Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Commentary
  • Published:

Bias in the attribution of forest carbon sinks

Nature Climate Change volume 3, pages 854–856 (2013)Cite this article

Subjects

A substantial fraction of the terrestrial carbon sink, past and present, may be incorrectly attributed to environmental change rather than changes in forest management.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Model-based reconstruction of carbon flows and stocks in Austria's forests from 1830–2000.

References

  1. Le Quéré, C. et al. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 5, 165–185 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Le Quéré, C. et al. Nature Geosci. 2, 831–836 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Canadell, J. G. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 104, 18866–18870 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Richter, D. & Houghton, R. A. Carbon 2, 41–47 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Houghton, R. A. in Global Forest Monitoring from Earth Observation (eds Archard, F. & Hansen, M.C.) 29–52 (CRC, 2013).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Houghton, R. A. Tellus B 51, 298–313 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Houghton, R. A. Tellus B 55, 378–390 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Houghton, R. A. et al. Biogeosciences 9, 5125–5142 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Pan, Y. et al. Science 333, 988–993 (2011).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Houghton, R. A. et al. Ecol. Monogr. 53, 235 (1983).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Gingrich, S., Erb, K-H., Krausmann, F., Gaube, V. & Haberl, H. Reg. Environ. Change 7, 37–47 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Erb, K-H., Gingrich, S., Krausmann, F. & Haberl, H. J. Ind. Ecol. 12, 686–703 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Erb, K-H. Ecosystems 7, 563–572 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Weiss, P., Schieler, K., Schadauer, K., Radunsky, K. & Englisch, M. Die Kohlenstoffbilanz des österreichischen Waldes und Betrachtungen zum Kyoto-Protokoll Vol. 106 (Umweltbundesam, 2000).

    Google Scholar 

  15. Kauppi, P. E. et al. Forest Ecol. Manage. 259, 1239–1244 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Rautiainen, A., Saikku, L. & Kauppi, P. E. Forest Ecol. Manage. 259, 1232–1238 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Holtsmark, B. Climatic Change 112, 415–428 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Mackey, B. et al. Nature Clim. Change 3, 552–557 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. State of the World's Forests 2012 (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2012).

  20. http://www.un-redd.org/

  21. Singh, S. J., Haberl, H., Chertow, M. & Schmid, M. Long Term Socio-ecological Research — Studies in Society–Nature Interactions Across Spatial and Temporal Scales (Springer, 2013).

    Google Scholar 

  22. http://www.bfi.at

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the EU-FP7 project VOLANTE (265104), by the ERC Grants 263522 and 242564, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), project P20812-G11, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the proVISION programme of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and the Einstein Siftung Berlin. Comments by Jed O. Kaplan helped to improve the manuscript. This research contributes to the Global Land Project.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Social Ecology Vienna (SEC), Alpen-Adria Universitaet Klagenfurt, Wien, Graz, Schottenfeldgasse 29, Vienna, 1070, Austria

    Karl-Heinz Erb, Thomas Kastner & Helmut Haberl

  2. LSCE CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Orme des Merisiers, F-91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    Sebastiaan Luyssaert

  3. Woods Hole Research Center, 149 Woods Hole Road, Falmouth, 02540, MA, USA

    Richard A. Houghton

  4. Geography Department, Humboldt-University Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, Berlin, 10099, Germany

    Tobias Kuemmerle

  5. Earth System Analysis, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research,

    Tobias Kuemmerle

  6. Department of Earth and Environment, Boston University, 685 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, 02215, MA, USA

    Pontus Olofsson

Authors
  1. Karl-Heinz Erb
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Thomas Kastner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Sebastiaan Luyssaert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Richard A. Houghton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Tobias Kuemmerle
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Pontus Olofsson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Helmut Haberl
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karl-Heinz Erb.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Data sources (PDF 1613 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Erb, KH., Kastner, T., Luyssaert, S. et al. Bias in the attribution of forest carbon sinks. Nature Clim Change 3, 854–856 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2004

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2004

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing