Table 2. Carbon loss and gain in global forest ecosystems (PgC year⁻¹).

Comparison of regional carbon fluxes from this study with the recent estimates from inventory and models. Estimates from published results are either reported directly or recalculated to match the regional extent of each ecosystem if the information was available. Carbon fluxes are also adjusted or recalculated from publications to include only live biomass contributions unless indicated in the table. Numbers in green shaded rows include fluxes from land-use change and include all carbon pools.

References	Period	Global forests			Boreal forests			Temperate forests			Tropical forests
		Loss	Gain	Net	Loss	Gain	Net	Loss	Gain	Net	Loss	Gain	Net
Carbon fluxes (PgC year−1)
Xu et al. 2021 (this study)	2000–2019	4.63	−5.51	−0.88	0.31	−0.40	−0.09	0.42	−0.72	−0.31	3.18	−3.59	−0.41
Harris et al. (29)	2001–2015	2.12	−4.23	−2.11	0.22	−0.67	−0.45	0.24	−1.21	0.97	1.39	1.91	−0.51
Yue et al.* (51)	2000–2015	2.27	−3.5	−1.2	0.11	−0.58	−0.47	0	−0.37	−0.37	0.76	−0.84	−0.08
Tagesson et al. (16)	2000–2015	4.98	−5.59	−0.61	0.65	−0.86	−0.22	0.718	−0.86	−0.14	1.72	−1.94	−0.22
Pan et al.† (14)	2000–2007	2.06	−2.94	−0.8	-	-	−0.12	-	-	−0.45	2.43	−2.37	0.06
Pan et al. (31)	1990–2007			0.21			−0.13			−0.39			0.69
Baccini et al. 2017 (26)	2003–2014										0.86	−0.44	0.42
Achard et al. (54)	2000–2010										0.88	−0.097	0.78
Liu et al. (52)	2003–2012			−0.29			−0.16			−0.17			0.23
Hansis et al.‡ (46)	2000–2019	4.59	−3.01	1.58	0.24	−0.16	0.08	0.40	−0.40	0.0	+2.19	−1.27	0.92
Houghton and Nassikas§ (53)	2006–2015	5.5	4.0	1.5	-	-	-	0.8	−1.1	−0.3	4.7	−3.3	1.4

*Carbon fluxes includes soil-related fluxes.

†Loss and gain are adjusted for live biomass using a ratio of 0.73 = 2.94/4.017 from inventory data provided in Tables 1 and 2 (14).

‡Estimates are from land-use change emissions and removals only and include all carbon pools.

§Same as above temperate fluxes include both temperate and boreal regions.