Table 2

Areas and carbon content of major terrestrial ecosystems in 1850 and 1980, and changes over the 130-year period. Negative values indicate an increase in area or total carbon.

	----------- Area (10⁶ ha) -----------			-------------------------- Carbon (10¹⁵ g) ----------------------
					--------- Vegetation ---------			-------------- Soil -------------

	1850	1980	change		1850	1980	change	1850	1980	change
Tropical evergreen forest	674	602	72		126	107	19	75	62	13
Tropical seasonal forest	1,757	1,459	298		212	169	43	158	125	33
Temperate evergreen forest	537	508	29		86	81	5	72	68	4
Temperate decidiuous forest	429	369	61		56	48	8	57	49	8
Boreal forest	1,171	1,168	3		105	105	0	241	241	0
Tropical fallows (shifting cultivation)	203	227	-24		7	8	-1	17	19	-2
Tropical open forest/woodland	456	307	149		24	15	9	30	20	10
Tropical grassland and pasture	1,029	1,021	8		16	17	-1	44	49	-5
Temperate woodland	274	264	10		7	7	0	19	18	1
Temperate grassland and pasture	1,507	1,235	272		11	9	2	285	233	52
Tundra and alpine meadow¹	800	800	0		2	2	0	163	163	0
Desert scrub¹	1,800	1,800	0		5	5	0	104	104	0
Rock, ice, and sand¹	2,400	2,400	0		0.2	0.2	0	4	4	0
Cultivated temperate zone	384	751	-367		1	3	-1	47	96	-49
Cultivated tropical zone	153	655	-502		0	4	-3	9	35	-26
Swamp and marsh¹	200	200	0		14	14	0	145	145	0
TOTAL	13,767	13,767	0		672	592	80	1,471	1,431	40

¹ From Whittaker and Likens (1973) and Schlesinger (1984).

Adopted from R.A. Houghton, 1995: Changes in the storage of terrestrial carbon since 1850. In Soils and Global Change, R. Lat, I. Kimble, E. Levine, and R.A. Stewart. Lewis Publishers. 440 pp.