2014?????

Jovial Monk wrote on Jan 24^th, 2021 at 1:49pm:

From your reference -

"Almost 60% of the higher than normal carbon uptake that year, or 840 million tons, happened in Australia. That was due to a combination of factors, including geography and a run of very dry years, followed by record-breaking rains in 2010 and 2011."

"Unexpectedly, the largest carbon uptake occurred in the semi-arid landscapes of Australia, Southern Africa and South America."

And we were  only talking forests and grasslands.

BTW - Australia's emissions were about 392 Mt CO2e in 2011.


But of course you could read Barrett DJ (2002) where he estimated 700Mt CO2

From Polter et al 2014

"Surprisingly,we find that the global carbon sink anomaly was  driven by growth of semi-arid vegetation in the Southern Hemisphere,with almost 60 per cent of carbon uptake attributed to Australian eco-systems, where prevalent La Nina conditions caused up to six consecutive seasons of increased precipitation."

"Although 2011 precipitation explained most of the NEE increase in Aus-tralia (a 0.56 Pg C yr21contribution), the climate memory effect also explained 0.21 Pg C of the 2011 Australian sink because of high precipitation in 2010 that recharged soil moisture and plant carbohydrate reserves to the benefit of NPP in 2011."

So over two years not one.  And the use of models.

doi:10.1038/nature13376

"In Australia, for example, compared with the 2003–2012average, LPJ simulated a 45% increase in NPP for 2011, from an average of 1.75 to 2.54 Pg C yr21, but only a 9% increase in Rh(from 1.48 to1.61 Pg C yr21). Moreover, wetter conditions decreased modelled fire-emissions by 29% (from 0.13 to 0.09 Pg C yr21) yielding a net 0.84 Pg C2011 sink.

Note they also use C not CO2.

So what do we have -

An average 2003-2012 of 1.7Pg C/year. That's 1.7 gigatonne of carbon.

ON AVERAGE - 1

Australia's eco system sequesters more CO2 every year than Australia emits, therefore we are a carbon neutral country, what we emit is taken up by our land and its eco system.

Here are some crude results from what information is available.

Depending on their state like, tree spacing, humidity, dryness etc etc

Australian grasslands and forests sequester approximately between

0.5 to 2 tonnes of carbon per hectare annually

To convert to CO2 we need to multiply by 3.67, therefore re-writing

Australian grasslands and forests sequester approximately between

1.835 to 7.34 tonnes of carbon dioxide per hectare annually

There are approximately 149 million hectares of Australian forests

There are approximately 440 million hectares of Australia grass lands

Forrest uptake of atmospheric CO2 every year

Lowest: 149 x 1.835 = 273.4 million tonnes of CO2 per annum

Highest: 149 x 7.34 = 1093.66 million tonnes of CO2 per annum

Grasslands uptake of atmospheric CO2 every year

Lowest: 440 x 1.835 = 807.4 million tonnes of CO2 per annum

Highest: 440 x 7.34 = 3229.6 million tonnes of CO2 per annum

Let’s combine grasslands and forest uptake of atmospheric CO2 per annum

Lowest: 273.4 + 807.4 = 1080.8 million tonnes of CO2 per annum

Highest: 1093.66 + 3229.6 = 4323.26 million tonnes per annum

Australia emits 560 million tonnes of CO2 per annum

The bottom line is

Lowest: Our grasslands and forests sequester nearly double what we emit.

Highest: Our grass lands and forests sequester nearly eight times more than we emit.

Conclusion:

It would be a rare occasion for the lowest or the highest values to take place therefore more than likely we would hover somewhere in between lowest and highest depending on the sun and weather conditions.

The above doesn't take into account the uptake of the land (Australian soil) itself which would make those values even bigger.

https://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/2009/12/which-plants-store-more-carbon-in-aust...

ON AVERAGE - 3

Quote:

Ajax wrote on Jan 26^th, 2021 at 9:13am:


Quote:

Australia is a bigger intelligence sink than a carbon sink.