History of the land: Challenges in modeling the effects of land use change and land management on the global carbon cycle

Human land use and land management practices leave long-lasting legacies. For example, the decay of industrial wood products adds CO₂ to the atmosphere long after wood is harvested, and not always in the locale where harvest occurred. Agriculture alters elemental stoichiometry in soils, which affects soil respiration long after crops are farmed. The legacy of human activity on the land modifies ecosystem structure and function, thereby changing the distribution of carbon sources and sinks. State-of-the-art carbon cycle models cannot yet fully isolate the effects of land use history on ecosystem processes, but solutions to this problem may be near.