Major forest changes and land cover transitions based on plant functional types derived from the ESA CCI Land Cover product

• New ESA CCI land cover product was evaluated for land-surface models use.
• Deforestation areas decreased from 2000–2005 to 2005–2010.
• The forest changes are mainly distributed in tropical areas.
• Most of the degradation from grassland and shrubland occurred in boreal regions.
• Different PFT transition matrices and patterns were found in different regions.

Land use and land cover change are of prime concern due to their impacts on CO2 emissions, climate change and ecological services. New global land cover products at 300 m resolution from the European Space Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative Land Cover (CCI LC) project for epochs centered around 2000, 2005 and 2010 were analyzed to investigate forest area change and land cover transitions. Plant functional types (PFTs) fractions were derived from these land cover products according to a conversion table. The gross global forest loss between 2000 and 2010 is 172,171 km2, accounting for 0.6% of the global forest area in year 2000. The forest changes are mainly distributed in tropical areas such as Brazil and Indonesia. Forest gains were only observed between 2005 and 2010 with a global area of 9844 km2, mostly from crops in Southeast Asia and South America. The predominant PFT transition is deforestation from forest to crop, accounting for four-fifths of the total increase of cropland area between 2000 and 2010. The transitions from forest to bare soil, shrub, and grass also contributed strongly to the total areal change in PFTs. Different PFT transition matrices and composition patterns were found in different regions. The highest fractions of forest to bare soil transitions were found in the United States and Canada, reflecting forest management practices. Most of the degradation from grassland and shrubland to bare soil occurred in boreal regions. The areal percentage of forest loss and land cover transitions generally decreased from 2000–2005 to 2005–2010. Different data sources and uncertainty in the conversion factors (converting from original LC classes to PFTs) contribute to the discrepancy in the values of change in absolute forest area.