Quantifying the recarbonization of post-agricultural landscapes

Stephen M Bell; Samuel J Raymond; He Yin; Wenzhe Jiao; Daniel S Goll; Philippe Ciais; Elsa Olivetti; Victor O Leshyk; César Terrer

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-37907-w

Quantifying the recarbonization of post-agricultural landscapes

Nat Commun. 2023 Apr 14;14(1):2139. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-37907-w.

Authors

Stephen M Bell^{1

2

3}, Samuel J Raymond⁴, He Yin⁵, Wenzhe Jiao^{6

4}, Daniel S Goll⁷, Philippe Ciais⁷, Elsa Olivetti^{4

8}, Victor O Leshyk⁹, César Terrer⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA. bells590@mit.edu.
² Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France. bells590@mit.edu.
³ Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain. bells590@mit.edu.
⁴ MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
⁵ Department of Geography, Kent State University, 325 S. Lincoln Street, Kent, OH, 44242, USA.
⁶ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
⁷ Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
⁸ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
⁹ Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, 86011, USA.

Abstract

Despite worldwide prevalence, post-agricultural landscapes remain one of the least constrained human-induced land carbon sinks. To appraise their role in rebuilding the planet’s natural carbon stocks through ecosystem restoration, we need to better understand their spatial and temporal legacies.