2011/02/17 by John F. Boyle, Marie‐José Gaillard, Jed O. Kaplan +1 · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Social Sciences · Environmental Science · #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Isotope Analysis in Ecology #Holocene #Ice core #Population #Prehistory #Carbon cycle #Physical geography #Environmental science #Geography #Geology #Climatology #Archaeology #Ecology #Ecosystem #Demography
paper · doi:10.1177/0959683610386984
openalex publication_date 2011/02/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
An evaluation of modelled estimates for C release following early land clearance at the global level based on new model assumptions suggests that earlier studies may have underestimated its magnitude, chiefly because of underestimation of the mid-Holocene global population. Alternative information sources for population and land utilisation support both a greater total CO 2 release and a greater Neolithic contribution. Indeed, we show that the quantity of terrestrial C release due to early farming, even using the most conservative assumptions, greatly exceeds the net terrestrial C release estimated by inverse modelling of ice core data by Elsig et al. (Elsig J, Schmitt J, Leuenberger D, Schneider R, Eyer M, Leuenberger M et al. (2009) Stable isotope constraints on Holocene carbon cycle changes from an Antarctic ice core. Nature 461: 507–510), though uncertainty about past global population estimates precludes calculation of a precise value.