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First published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, v10 i2 published by Springer Nature. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02955-6

Document Type

Article

Publication Version

Published Version

Keywords

Ecosystem services; Grassland ecology

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Nature Ecology and Evolution

Volume

10

Issue

2

First Page

246

Last Page

257

Abstract

Land cover data are commonly used to model the terrestrial carbon (C) sink, yet these data have wide margins of error that significantly alter estimates of global C storage. Here we demonstrate this data vulnerability in grasslands, which are critical to C cycling but whose estimated distribution has varied by >50 million km2 (3.5–42% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface). Comparing multiple high-resolution land cover products with expertly annotated grassland data from six continents, we show sources of mapping error and discuss C implications based on 2023 United Nations (UN) FAO estimates. Past misidentification arose from inconsistent definitions on grassland identity and classification flaws especially relating to woody plant cover. Correcting these errors adjusted grassland coverage to 22.8% of the terrestrial land base (30.1 million km2), elevating UN projections of soil C stocks to 155.02 Pg (0–30 cm depth). These findings underscore the challenges of biome mapping for ecosystem accounting and policy, when lacking field-validated remotely sensed data.

Department

Department of Biology

Original Publication Date

2-1-2026

Object Description

1 PDF File

DOI of published version

10.1038/s41559-025-02955-6

Repository

UNI ScholarWorks, Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa

Copyright

©2026 The Author(s)

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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