High aboveground carbon stock of African tropical montane forests
Language English Country Great Britain, England Media print-electronic
Document type Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PubMed
34433947
DOI
10.1038/s41586-021-03728-4
PII: 10.1038/s41586-021-03728-4
Knihovny.cz E-resources
- MeSH
- Biomass MeSH
- Datasets as Topic MeSH
- Rainforest * MeSH
- Geographic Mapping MeSH
- Climate Change MeSH
- Attitude * MeSH
- Carbon Sequestration * MeSH
- Trees metabolism MeSH
- Tropical Climate * MeSH
- Carbon analysis MeSH
- Conservation of Natural Resources MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
- Geographicals
- Africa MeSH
- Names of Substances
- Carbon MeSH
Tropical forests store 40-50 per cent of terrestrial vegetation carbon1. However, spatial variations in aboveground live tree biomass carbon (AGC) stocks remain poorly understood, in particular in tropical montane forests2. Owing to climatic and soil changes with increasing elevation3, AGC stocks are lower in tropical montane forests compared with lowland forests2. Here we assemble and analyse a dataset of structurally intact old-growth forests (AfriMont) spanning 44 montane sites in 12 African countries. We find that montane sites in the AfriMont plot network have a mean AGC stock of 149.4 megagrams of carbon per hectare (95% confidence interval 137.1-164.2), which is comparable to lowland forests in the African Tropical Rainforest Observation Network4 and about 70 per cent and 32 per cent higher than averages from plot networks in montane2,5,6 and lowland7 forests in the Neotropics, respectively. Notably, our results are two-thirds higher than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change default values for these forests in Africa8. We find that the low stem density and high abundance of large trees of African lowland forests4 is mirrored in the montane forests sampled. This carbon store is endangered: we estimate that 0.8 million hectares of old-growth African montane forest have been lost since 2000. We provide country-specific montane forest AGC stock estimates modelled from our plot network to help to guide forest conservation and reforestation interventions. Our findings highlight the need for conserving these biodiverse9,10 and carbon-rich ecosystems.
AMAP Lab Université de Montpellier IRD CNRS INRAE CIRAD Montpellier France
Applied Biology and Ecology Research Unit University of Dschang Dschang Cameroon
Biodiversity and Landscape Unit Gembloux Agro Bio Tech Université de Liege Liège Belgium
Biodiversity Foundation for Africa East Dean UK
Biology Department Université Officielle de Bukavu Bukavu Democratic Republic of the Congo
Biology Department University of Rwanda Kigali Rwanda
Bioversity International Yaoundé Cameroon
Center for Development Research University of Bonn Bonn Germany
Center for International Forestry Research Bogor Indonesia
College of African Wildlife Management Mweka Tanzania
College of Development Studies Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa Ethiopia
College of Natural and Computational Science Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa Ethiopia
Conservation and Landscape Ecology University of Freiburg Freiburg Germany
Conservation Science Group Department of Zoology University of Cambridge Cambridge UK
Dendrochronology Laboratory World Agroforestry Centre Nairobi Kenya
Department of Anthropology George Washington University Washington DC USA
Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences University of Gothenburg Gothenburg Sweden
Department of Biological Sciences Florida International University Miami FL USA
Department of Biology University of Burundi Bujumbura Burundi
Department of Biology University of Florence Sesto Fiorentino Italy
Department of Ecology Faculty of Science Charles University Prague Czech Republic
Department of Ecology Université de Kisangani Kisangani Democratic Republic of the Congo
Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability Colorado State University Fort Collins CO USA
Department of Environment and Geography University of York York UK
Department of Environment Laboratory of Wood Technology Ghent University Ghent Belgium
Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences University of Dundee Dundee UK
Department of Geography National University of Singapore Singapore Singapore
Department of Geography University College London London UK
Department of Geosciences and Geography University of Helsinki Helsinki Finland
Department of Natural Resources Karatina University Karatina Kenya
Department of Natural Sciences Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester UK
Department of Plant Biology Faculty of Sciences University of Yaoundé 1 Yaoundé Cameroon
Department of Plant Systematics University of Bayreuth Bayreuth Germany
Department of Zoology Faculty of Science Charles University Prague Czech Republic
Division of Vertebrate Zoology Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History New Haven CT USA
European Commission Joint Research Centre Ispra Italy
Faculty of Forestry University of British Columbia Vancouver British Columbia Canada
Faculty of Science University of South Bohemia České Budějovice Czech Republic
Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group Wageningen University Wageningen The Netherlands
Forestry Development Authority of the Government of Liberia Monrovia Liberia
Geography Environment and Geomatics University of Guelph Guelph Ontario Canada
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig Germany
Independent Botanist Harare Zimbabwe
Institute for Geography Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen Nuremberg Germany
Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Science Třeboň Czech Republic
Institute of Forestry and Conservation University of Toronto Toronto Ontario Canada
Institute of Vertebrate Biology Czech Academy of Sciences Brno Czech Republic
International Centre of Biodiversity and Primate Conservation Dali University Dali China
International Gorilla Conservation Programme Musanze Rwanda
Inventory and Monitoring Program National Park Service Fredericksburg VA USA
Isotope Bioscience Laboratory Ghent University Ghent Belgium
Key Biodiversity Areas Secretariat BirdLife International Cambridge UK
Kunming Institute of Botany Kunming China
Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity University of York York UK
Missouri Botanical Garden St Louis MO USA
Mountains of the Moon University Fort Portal Uganda
Nigerian Montane Forest Project Yelwa Village Nigeria
Rothamsted Research Harpenden UK
School of Biological Sciences University of Southampton Southampton UK
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Yale University New Haven CT USA
School of Geography University of Leeds Leeds UK
School of GeoSciences University of Edinburgh Edinburgh UK
School of Life Sciences University of KwaZulu Natal Pietermaritzburg South Africa
School of Life Sciences University of Lincoln Lincoln UK
School of Natural Sciences University of Bangor Bangor UK
Service of Wood Biology Royal Museum for Central Africa Tervuren Belgium
Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Animal Conservation Northwest University Xi'an China
Tropical Biodiversity Section Museo delle Scienze Trento Italy
Tropical Plant Exploration Group Mundemba Cameroon
UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology Edinburgh UK
UK Research and Innovation London UK
UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Center Cambridge UK
Université Libre de Bruxelles Brussels Belgium
University of Canterbury Canterbury New Zealand
University of Ghent Ghent Belgium
University of Liberia Monrovia Liberia
Water and Land Resources Center Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa Ethiopia
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Contrasting carbon cycle along tropical forest aridity gradients in West Africa and Amazonia
