Fig. 1. Dynamics in forests and carbon stocks in southern China.

a AVHRR estimated²⁷ dynamics in tree cover, and cover fraction of short vegetation, which is grass and cropland, as well as bare ground from 1990 to 2016 in southern China. b The same data source is used to show global increases and decreases in tree cover (larger 0.5% year⁻¹) from 2000 to 2016. The study region is marked with a black rectangle. c Fossil CO₂ emissions (2000–2015)³⁰ from the eight provinces in southern China (error bars are standard deviations) compared to net C changes (2002–2017) in aboveground vegetation calculated from MODIS data for the same area (shaded area is the uncertainty based on the RMSE between MODIS- and SMOS-based estimates; see text). Pixel number for eight provinces = 8,573,649. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.