The global carbon sink: a grassland perspective

The challenge to identify the biospheric sinks for about half the total carbon emissions from fossil fuels must include a consideration of below-ground ecosystem processes as well as those more easily measured above-ground. Recent studies suggest that tropical grasslands and savannas may contribute more to the 'missing sink' than was previously appreciated, perhaps as much as 0.5 Pg (= 0.5 Gt) carbon per annum. The rapid increase in availability of productivity data facilitated by the Internet will be important for future scaling-up of global change responses, to establish independent lines of evidence about the location and size of carbon sinks.