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. 2010 Nov 1;107(46):19645–19648. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1011078107

Fig. 4.

Fig. 4.

Tradeoffs of carbon and crop production in temperate and tropical regions. Each hectare of land cleared for cropland in the temperate region releases an average of 63 tons of carbon and annually produces an average of 3.8 tons of dry crops. In contrast, a hectare of cleared land in the tropics releases an average of 120 tons of carbon and annually produces 1.7 tons of dry crops. The tradeoff varies depending on type of ecosystem cleared, soil type, crops planted, and crop management practices. We assumed that the coal was 75% carbon, making a standard railcar of coal equivalent to 68 tons of carbon. Dry yields were adjusted to account for the 11% water content in harvested maize grain.