Carbon Dynamics and Sequestration Under Past and Future Climate Scenarios over India in Earth System Model Simulations

Carbon sequestration refers to the fixing of carbon in the soil, vegetation, oceans, etc., out of which soil is considered an important sink for carbon. CO2 flux between the soil and atmosphere has a great impact on atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Earth System models (ESM) are extensively used for the assessment of climate change on regional and global scales. The present study aims to assess the change in carbon storage in various sinks of carbon from ESM of Coupled Models Inter-comparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) under the past and future time periods using the CanESM2 model data. The present study shows the spatio-temporal trend of carbon sequestration in soil, vegetation, and litter under different representative concentration pathways in the near (2031–2060) and far future (2061–2100). Changes in net ecosystem productivity (NEP) are also analyzed for past and future time periods. The ESM outputs will help the scientific community to understand the carbon flux and fate of carbon sequestration under changing climate.