ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2022
The global potential for increased storage of carbon on land.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A global meta-analysis of soil organic carbon in the Anthropocene.Nature communications · 2023Pooled it
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- Impact of long-term straw and manure incorporation on carbon sequestration and yield through alteration of aluminum and iron oxides in acidic red soil.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Regional priorities in implementing forestation and wind energy as climate solutions in facing their trade-offs.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Integrated Estimates of Forest Expansion Opportunity in New York State.Environmental management · 2026Article
- Reforestation scenarios shape global and regional temperature outcomes.Communications earth & environment · 2026Article
- Storage Potential of Soil Functional Carbon Fractions in the World's Largest Plantations.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Integrating belowground recovery into tropical forest restoration design and monitoring.Bioscience · 2025Article
- An option space approach to wood use: Providing structural timber for buildings while safeguarding forest integrity.iScience · 2025Article
- Accounting for albedo in carbon market protocols.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Carbon costs of different pathways for reducing fire hazard in the Sierra Nevada.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2025Article
- Article
- Leaf economic strategies drive global variation in phosphorus stimulation of terrestrial plant production.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Addressing critiques refines global estimates of reforestation potential for climate change mitigation.Nature communications · 2025Article
- A global dataset of experimental agricultural management on soil carbon accrual, its synergies and trade-offs.Scientific data · 2025Article
- Article
- Meeting European Union biodiversity targets under future land-use demands.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- Spatially explicit terrestrial carbon densities for calibrating the carbon cycle in human-Earth system Models.Scientific data · 2025Article
- Climate mitigation potential for targeted forestation after considering climate change, fires, and albedo.Science advances · 2025Article
- Potential tree cover under current and future climate scenarios.Scientific data · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Constraining the climate crisis requires urgent action to reduce anthropogenic emissions while simultaneously removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Improved information about the maximum magnitude and spatial distribution of opportunities for additional land-based removals of CO2 is needed to guide on-the-ground decision-making about where to implement climate change mitigation strategies. Here, we present a globally consistent spatial dataset (approximately 500-m resolution) of current, potential, and unrealized potential carbon storage in woody plant biomass and soil organic matter. We also provide a framework for prioritizing actions related to the restoration, management, and maintenance of woody carbon stocks and associated soils. By comparing current to potential carbon storage, while excluding areas critical to food production and human habitation, we find 287 petagrams (PgC) of unrealized potential storage opportunity, of which 78% (224 PgC) is in biomass and 22% (63 PgC) is in soil. Improved management of existing forests may offer nearly three-fourths (206 PgC) of the total unrealized potential, with the majority (71%) concentrated in tropical ecosystems. However, climate change is a source of considerable uncertainty. While additional research is needed to understand the impact of natural disturbances and biophysical feedbacks, we project that the potential for additional carbon storage in woody biomass will increase (+17%) by 2050 despite projected decreases (−12%) in the tropics. Our results establish an absolute reference point and conceptual framework for national and jurisdictional prioritization of locations and actions to increase land-based carbon storage.
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