Emissions from land use add to fossil fuel emissions
November 24th, 2009 by Jim JustOf all global carbon dioxide emissions, less than half accumulate in the atmosphere where they contribute to global warming. The remainder is sequestered in oceans and terrestrial ecosystems such as forests, grasslands and peat-lands.
But not in Europe. A research team led by a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena has found that while European forests and grasslands, primarily in Russia, absorb enough carbon to offset 19% of the emission from Europe’s fossil fuel burning, emissions of greenhouse gases from land-use cancel out almost the entire carbon sink, leaving the landscape offsetting only some 2% of the CO2 emissions from households, transport and industry. Examples of emissions from land use include nitrous oxide from fertilizers applied to grassland and crops and methane from ruminants and from peat-lands.
Forests, grasslands and agriculture fields, particularly in central Europe, freely release greenhouse gas (in carbon dioxide equivalents / red coloring in diagram). In this way they balance out the effect which Russian forests have as a source of carbon dioxide storage (blue coloring), almost completely.The situation looks much worse if only the 25 states of the European Union are considered. Here, the land surface emerges as a greenhouse gas source of 34 Million tonnes of carbon per year, effectively adding to the emissions from fossil fuel burning by another 3%