A study of spatiotemporal changes in steppe ecosystems and their potential greenhouse gas sequestrations from 1990 to 2015

Since the amount of greenhouse gases carried by China's steppe and desert steppe ecosystems cannot be effectively quantified on a large scale in the region, this study utilized the greenhouse gas value (GHGV) model and land-use data to analyze spatiotemporal changes in steppe data. The two sets of simulation parameters (global and localized) were combined to simulate the storage potential of three major types of greenhouse gases (CO₂, CH₄, N₂O) in China's steppe and desert steppe ecosystems in the past 25 years. During the study period, the area of the steppe and desert steppe showed a downward trend, and the storage potential of greenhouse gases was weakened. The stored greenhouse gas was reduced by 1.93 Pg·CO₂-equivalent^–1. Comparing the localization parameter with the simulation results of the model's own parameters, revealed that the simulated greenhouse gas values for the steppe and desert steppe ecosystems with localization parameters were larger than the simulated values using global parameters. Furthermore, this study found that the current research is faced with the challenge of quantitative difference from steppe area to steppe carbon storage, and additional in-depth research is urgently needed.