Regional changes in carbon dioxide fluxes of land and oceans since 1980

Philippe Bousquet, Philippe Peylin, Philippe Ciais, Corinne Le Quere, Pierre Friedlingstein, Pieter P. Tans

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589 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We have applied an inverse model to 20 years of atmospheric carbon dioxide measurements to infer yearly changes in the regional carbon balance of oceans and continents. The model indicates that global terrestrial carbon fluxes were approximately twice as variable as ocean fluxes between 1980 and 1998. Tropical land ecosystems contributed most of the interannual changes in Earth's carbon balance over the 1980s, whereas northern mid- and high-latitude land ecosystems dominated from 1990 to 1995. Strongly enhanced uptake of carbon was found over North America during the 1992-1993 period compared to 1989-1990.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1342-1346
Number of pages5
JournalScience
Volume290
Issue number5495
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2000

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