Stephen Sitch

Biographic Data

ID6015726
NAMEStephen Sitch
GIVEN NAMESStephen
FAMILY NAMESitch
SIGNATURESITCH S
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of Exeter
ORCID0000-0003-1821-8561
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS39
TOTAL CITATIONS18
AUTHOR COUNT39
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2001
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2025
H-INDEX2

  • Climate benefits of Amazon secondary forests—recent advances and research needs

    Open AccessJessica C A Baker, M Adami et al.ARTICLEEnvironmental Research Letters2025

    A quarter of the deforested Amazon has regrown as secondary tropical forest and yet the climatic importance of these complex regenerating landscapes is only beginning to be recognised. Advances in satellite remote-sensing have transformed our ability to detect and map changes in forest cover, while detailed ground-based measurements from permanent monitoring plots and eddy-covariance flux towers are providing new insights into the role of seconda…

  • Global Carbon Budget 2023

    Open AccessPierre Friedlingstein, Mike O’Sullivan et al.ARTICLEEarth System Science Data2023

    Accurate assessment of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and their redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biosphere in a changing climate is critical to better understand the global carbon cycle, support the development of climate policies, and project future climate change. Here we describe and synthesize data sets and methodology to quantify the five major components of the global carbon budget and their uncertai…

  • Global Carbon Budget 2021

    Open AccessPierre Friedlingstein, Matthew W Jones et al.ARTICLEEarth System Science Data2022

    Accurate assessment of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions andtheir redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biospherein a changing climate is critical to better understand the global carboncycle, support the development of climate policies, and project futureclimate change. Here we describe and synthesize datasets and methodology toquantify the five major components of the global carbon budget and theiruncertainties. …

  • Global Carbon Budget 2022

    Open AccessPierre Friedlingstein, Mike O’Sullivan et al.ARTICLEEarth System Science Data2022

    Accurate assessment of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions andtheir redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biospherein a changing climate is critical to better understand the global carboncycle, support the development of climate policies, and project futureclimate change. Here we describe and synthesize data sets and methodologies toquantify the five major components of the global carbon budget and theiruncertaintie…

  • Global and Regional Trends and Drivers of Fire Under Climate Change

    Open AccessMatthew W Jones, John T Abatzoglou et al.ARTICLEReviews of Geophysics2022

    Recent wildfire outbreaks around the world have prompted concern that climate change is increasing fire incidence, threatening human livelihood and biodiversity, and perpetuating climate change. Here, we review current understanding of the impacts of climate change on fire weather (weather conditions conducive to the ignition and spread of wildfires) and the consequences for regional fire activity as mediated by a range of other bioclimatic facto…

  • Differences in land-based mitigation estimates reconciled by separating natural and land-use CO2 fluxes at the country level

    Open AccessClemens Schwingshackl, Wolfgang A Obermeier et al.ARTICLEOne Earth2022

    Anthropogenic and natural CO2 fluxes on land constitute substantial CO2 emissions and removals but are usually not well distinguished in national greenhouse gas reporting. Instead, countries frequently combine natural and indirect human-induced CO2 fluxes on managed land in their reports, which diminishes their usefulness for designing policies consistent with climate mitigation targets. Here, we separate natural and land-use-related CO2 fluxes f…

  • CO 2 fertilization of crops offsets yield losses due to future surface ozone damage and climate change

    Open AccessFelix Leung, Stephen Sitch et al.ARTICLEEnvironmental Research Letters2022

    Tropospheric ozone (O 3 ) is harmful to plant productivity and negatively impacts crop yields. O 3 concentrations are projected to decrease globally in the optimistic Representative Concentration Pathway of 2.6 W m –2 (RCP2.6) but increase globally following the high-emission scenario under the RCP8.5, with substantial implications for global food security. The damaging effect of O 3 on future crop yield is affected by CO 2 fertilization and clim…

  • Carbon loss from forest degradation exceeds that from deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

    Open AccessYuanwei Qin, Xiangming Xiao et al.ARTICLENature Climate Change2021

  • Historical and future global burned area with changing climate and human demography

    Open AccessChao Wu, Sergey Venevsky et al.ARTICLEOne Earth2021

  • A multi-data assessment of land use and land cover emissions from Brazil during 2000–2019

    Open AccessThais M Rosan, Kees Klein Goldewijk et al.ARTICLEEnvironmental Research Letters2021

    Brazil is currently the largest contributor of land use and land cover change (LULCC) carbon dioxide net emissions worldwide, representing 17%–29% of the global total. There is, however, a lack of agreement among different methodologies on the magnitude and trends in LULCC emissions and their geographic distribution. Here we perform an evaluation of LULCC datasets for Brazil, including those used in the annual global carbon budget (GCB), and nati…

  • Aerosol–light interactions reduce the carbon budget imbalance

    Open AccessMichael O’sullivan, Mike O’Sullivan et al.ARTICLEEnvironmental Research Letters2021

    Current estimates of the global land carbon sink contain substantial uncertainties on interannual timescales which contribute to a non-closure in the global carbon budget (GCB) in any given year. This budget imbalance (BIM) partly arises due to the use of imperfect models which are missing or misrepresenting processes. One such omission is the separate treatment of downward direct and diffuse solar radiation on photosynthesis. Here we evaluate an…

  • Dynamic global vegetation models underestimate net CO 2 flux mean and inter-annual variability in dryland ecosystems

    Open AccessNatasha MacBean, Russell L Scott et al.ARTICLEEnvironmental Research Letters2021

    Despite their sparse vegetation, dryland regions exert a huge influence over global biogeochemical cycles because they cover more than 40% of the world surface (Schimel 2010 Science 327 418–9). It is thought that drylands dominate the inter-annual variability (IAV) and long-term trend in the global carbon (C) cycle (Poulter et al 2014 Nature 509 600–3, Ahlstrom et al 2015 Science 348 895–9, Zhang et al 2018 Glob. Change Biol . 24 3954–68). Projec…

  • Five years of variability in the global carbon cycle: Comparing an estimate from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 and process-based models

    Open AccessZichong Chen, D N Huntzinger et al.ARTICLEEnvironmental Research Letters2021

    Year-to-year variability in CO 2 fluxes can yield insight into climate-carbon cycle relationships, a fundamental yet uncertain aspect of the terrestrial carbon cycle. In this study, we use global observations from NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite for years 2015–2019 and a geostatistical inverse model to evaluate 5 years of interannual variability (IAV) in CO 2 fluxes and its relationships with environmental drivers. OCO-2 la…

  • Global Carbon Budget 2020

    Open AccessPierre Friedlingstein, Mike O’Sullivan et al.ARTICLEEarth System Science Data2020

    Accurate assessment of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions andtheir redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biospherein a changing climate – the “global carbon budget” – is important tobetter understand the global carbon cycle, support the development ofclimate policies, and project future climate change. Here we describe andsynthesize data sets and methodology to quantify the five major componentsof the global carbon…

  • Vegetation biomass change in China in the 20th century: An assessment based on a combination of multi-model simulations and field observations

    Open AccessXiang Song, Fang Li et al.ARTICLEEnvironmental Research Letters2020

    Vegetation biomass is a key and active component of the carbon cycle. Though China’s vegetation biomass in recent decades has been widely investigated, only two studies have quantitatively assessed its century-scale changes so far and reported totally opposite trends. This study provided the first multi-model estimates of China’s vegetation biomass change for the 20th century and its responses to historical changes in environmental and anthropoge…

  • Increased atmospheric vapor pressure deficit reduces global vegetation growth

    Open AccessWenping Yuan, Yi Zheng et al.ARTICLEScience Advances2019

    Global vegetation greening trend stalled after the late 1990s due to increased atmospheric water demand.

  • Global Carbon Budget 2019

    Open AccessPierre Friedlingstein, Matthew W Jones et al.ARTICLEEarth System Science Data2019

    Accurate assessment of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions andtheir redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biosphere– the “global carbon budget” – is important to better understand theglobal carbon cycle, support the development of climate policies, andproject future climate change. Here we describe data sets and methodology toquantify the five major components of the global carbon budget and theiruncertainties. Foss…

  • Compensatory climate effects link trends in global runoff to rising atmospheric CO 2 concentration

    Open AccessHui Yang, Chris Huntingford et al.ARTICLEEnvironmental Research Letters2019

    River runoff is a key attribute of the land surface, that additionally has a strong influence on society by the provision of freshwater. Yet various environmental factors modify runoff levels, and some trends could be detrimental to humanity. Drivers include elevated CO 2 concentration, climate change, aerosols and altered land-use. Additionally, nitrogen deposition and tropospheric ozone changes influence plant functioning, and thus runoff, yet …

  • Global Carbon Budget 2018

    Open AccessCorinne Le Quéré, Robbie M Andrew et al.ARTICLEEarth System Science Data2018

    Accurate assessment of anthropogenic carbon dioxide(CO2) emissions and their redistribution among the atmosphere,ocean, and terrestrial biosphere – the “global carbon budget” – isimportant to better understand the global carbon cycle, support thedevelopment of climate policies, and project future climate change. Here wedescribe data sets and methodology to quantify the five major components ofthe global carbon budget and their uncertainties. Foss…

  • Increased importance of methane reduction for a 1.5 degree target

    Open AccessW J Collins, Christopher P Webber et al.ARTICLEEnvironmental Research Letters2018

    To understand the importance of methane on the levels of carbon emission reductions required to achieve temperature goals, a processed-based approach is necessary rather than reliance on the transient climate response to emissions. We show that plausible levels of methane (CH4) mitigation can make a substantial difference to the feasibility of achieving the Paris climate targets through increasing the allowable carbon emissions. This benefit is e…

  • Global Carbon Budget 2016

    Open AccessCorinne Le Quéré, Robbie M Andrew et al.ARTICLEEarth System Science Data2016

    Accurate assessment of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and their redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biosphere – the “global carbon budget” – is important to better understand the global carbon cycle, support the development of climate policies, and project future climate change. Here we describe data sets and methodology to quantify all major components of the global carbon budget, including their uncertainti…

  • Regional carbon fluxes from land use and land cover change in Asia, 1980–2009

    Open AccessLeonardo Calle, Josep G Canadell et al.ARTICLEEnvironmental Research Letters2016

    We present a synthesis of the land-atmosphere carbon flux from land use and land cover change (LULCC) in Asia using multiple data sources and paying particular attention to deforestation and forest regrowth fluxes. The data sources are quasi-independent and include the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization-Forest Resource Assessment (FAO-FRA 2015; country-level inventory estimates), the Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGARv4.…

  • The terrestrial carbon budget of South and Southeast Asia

    Open AccessMatthew Cervarich, Shijie Shu et al.ARTICLEEnvironmental Research Letters2016

    Accomplishing the objective of the current climate policies will require establishing carbon budget and flux estimates in each region and county of the globe by comparing and reconciling multiple estimates including the observations and the results of top-down atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) inversions and bottom-up dynamic global vegetation models. With this in view, this study synthesizes the carbon source/sink due to net ecosystem productiv…

  • The dominant role of semi-arid ecosystems in the trend and variability of the land CO 2 sink

    Open AccessAnders Ahlström, Michael Raupach et al.ARTICLEScience2015

    The difference is found at the margins The terrestrial biosphere absorbs about a quarter of all anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, but the amount that they take up varies from year to year. Why? Combining models and observations, Ahlström et al. found that marginal ecosystems—semiarid savannas and low-latitude shrublands—are responsible for most of the variability. Biological productivity in these semiarid regions is water-limited and strong…

  • Contribution of semi-arid ecosystems to interannual variability of the global carbon cycle

    Open AccessBenjamin Poulter, David Frank et al.ARTICLENature2014