Global patterns of anthrome carbon
J. E. Quinn, C. Vickery, N. Gauthier, K K. Goldewijk, E.C. Ellis
Furman University, 3300 Poinsett Hwy, Greenville, SC, 29613, USA

 The global patterns of vegetation carbon tend to be assessed in relation to specific biome types (e.g. forests) and land cover and land use categories. Assessing carbon across the heterogeneous multifunctional landscapes of anthromes offers a more comprehensive understanding of the global patterns of vegetation carbon at the regional landscape scale (~100 km2). Here we assess the global patterns of aboveground vegetation carbon in relation to the global patterns of anthromes and biomes in 2010. Most of Earth’s aboveground woody vegetation carbon is found in cultured anthromes (60% of global carbon) even though these cover just 30% of global land. In contrast, 28% of global vegetation carbon is in the intensive anthromes and 11% in wildlands that cover 51% and 19% of Earth’s land respectively. Cultured tropical woodlands represent the vast majority of global vegetation carbon (36%), even while covering only 9% of global land. These data suggest that opportunities for managing aboveground vegetation carbon co-benefits in conservation and land use planning are mostly found in the cultured landscapes of the Tropics.