Integrated Regional Carbon Budgets from Anthropogenic and Biospheric Sources and Sinks: a holistic framework to evaluate mitigation and adaptive management approaches
Abstract
During the past century, increased land use changes and use of fossil energy sources, primarily coal and oil, have resulted in a rapid increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration. In 2004, CO2 levels are estimated to have risen to 375 ppm, nearly 100 pm greater than the pre-industrial levels. Recent concerns regarding the impact of these increases and efforts to better understand regional sources and sinks of carbon has initiated research on regional accounting of carbon budgets which incorporate regional changes in carbon management and patterns of carbon exchange. Current efforts to develop regional budgets have separately estimated fossil fuel emissions, ecosystem sources and sinks, and ocean uptake, however, few studies have incorporated the role carbon management activities on regional differences in carbon sources and sinks. In this context, the most unequivocal drivers are demographic, economic, socio-political, science and technology related, cultural and religious. An improved understanding of carbon management is needed to evaluate current trends and to develop feasible strategies for carbon mitigation and sequestration. The various social and environmental factors affecting regional capacity to manage carbon are complex. The management considerations include aspects of energy, transportation, industry, agriculture and natural resource use. Analyses of these complexities linking decision making and carbon management within a regional context is a necessity in order to evaluate regional carbon budgets. The purpose of this paper is to explore how regional carbon budget information can contribute to the goal of holistic, adaptive regional development, to meet multiple criteria including (but extending well beyond) the management of regional carbon budgets. Our aim is to sharpen the utility of regional biophysical carbon budget information as a contributor to holistic decision- making.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006AGUFM.B51A0306O
- Keywords:
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- 0414 Biogeochemical cycles;
- processes;
- and modeling (0412;
- 0793;
- 1615;
- 4805;
- 0426 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions (0315);
- 0428 Carbon cycling (4806);
- 0430 Computational methods and data processing