Pyrogenic carbon production from fires in China from 1901 to 2020

Fires are a major disturbance in the terrestrial ecosystem carbon cycle, releasing CO₂ while converting part of biomass into pyrogenic carbon (PyC). PyC is increasingly recognized as a persistent carbon pool, yet it remains largely overlooked in the global carbon budget, and its large-scale and long-term dynamics remain poorly quantified. We quantified the spatiotemporal patterns of PyC production in China from 1901 to 2020 by integrating newly reconstructed century-scale burned area data and fuel-type-specific PyC production factors. Mean annual PyC production was 0.8 Tg C yr^-1 for forests and 0.0059 Tg C yr^-1 for non-forest fires, corresponding to 17.8% and 12.3% of associated CO₂ emissions. PyC production increased from 1901 to 2004 and declined thereafter, with Northeast China dominating national totals. This study provides the first century-long assessment of PyC dynamics in China and delivers gridded, uncertainty-quantified PyC estimates that can be incorporated into fire CO₂ inventories and carbon-accounting assessments.