Ganzenmüller et al. (2025): Humans have depleted global terrestrial carbon stocks by a quarter
Raphael Ganzenmüller, Wolfgang A. Obermeier, Selma Bultan, Seth A. Spawn-Lee, Florian Zabel and Julia Pongratz, IN: One Earth, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2025.101392
Although terrestrial ecosystems store large amounts of carbon, land-use change has substantially diminished these stocks in many regions. However, a consistent, high-resolution approach to quantify the differences between actual and potential carbon stocks in vegetation and soils—the terrestrial carbon deficit—remains elusive, limiting the evaluation of global climate models. Here, the authors combine semi-empirical data with machine learning to estimate the terrestrial carbon deficit to be 344 (251–393) PgC, equivalent to a 24% depletion, predominantly driven by pasture expansion (30%), cropland expansion (24%), and forest management (23%).