THE WORLD CONFERENCE ON ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION

18 Plenary Sessions
Carbon Exchange by Terrestrial Ecosystems and their feedbacks
with the Climate System
D. Papale & R. Valentini
Università degli Studi della Tuscia. Viterbo Italy
The current sink of carbon is a delicate balance between uptake of oceans and
terrestrial biota and emissions from anthropogenic activities and land use
changes.
There are however no scientific evidences that such a sink strength will continue
with the same magnitude and direction in the future. Across the globe
there is great temporal and spatial variability in the rates and cumulated carbon
exchanges by biomes due to temporal and spatial gradients in climate,
available resources, plant structure and function, land use and soil development.
Human activities, through modification of landscape patterns and socio
– economic changes are also important driving forces of carbon uptake and
release of terrestrial ecosystems. In this paper we address geographic variations
in climate and vegetation affect net carbon exchange of terrestrial
ecosystems and how likely climate changes could affect such processes. A
mechanistic interpretation is provided by decomposing net ecosystem productivity
(NEP) into its constituent componentsægross primary productivity and
ecosystem respiration.