| Literature DB >> 32132693 |
Wannes Hubau1,2,3, Simon L Lewis4,5, Oliver L Phillips4, Kofi Affum-Baffoe6, Hans Beeckman7, Aida Cuní-Sanchez5,8, Armandu K Daniels9, Corneille E N Ewango10,11,12, Sophie Fauset13, Jacques M Mukinzi10,14,15, Douglas Sheil16, Bonaventure Sonké17, Martin J P Sullivan4,18, Terry C H Sunderland19,20, Hermann Taedoumg17,21, Sean C Thomas22, Lee J T White23,24,25, Katharine A Abernethy24,25, Stephen Adu-Bredu26, Christian A Amani19,27, Timothy R Baker4, Lindsay F Banin28, Fidèle Baya29,30, Serge K Begne4,17, Amy C Bennett4, Fabrice Benedet31,32, Robert Bitariho33, Yannick E Bocko34, Pascal Boeckx35, Patrick Boundja19,36, Roel J W Brienen4, Terry Brncic36, Eric Chezeaux37, George B Chuyong38, Connie J Clark39, Murray Collins40,41, James A Comiskey42,43, David A Coomes44, Greta C Dargie4, Thales de Haulleville7, Marie Noel Djuikouo Kamdem38, Jean-Louis Doucet45, Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert4,46, Ted R Feldpausch47, Alusine Fofanah48, Ernest G Foli26, Martin Gilpin4, Emanuel Gloor4, Christelle Gonmadje49, Sylvie Gourlet-Fleury31,32, Jefferson S Hall50, Alan C Hamilton51, David J Harris52, Terese B Hart53,54, Mireille B N Hockemba36, Annette Hladik55, Suspense A Ifo56, Kathryn J Jeffery25, Tommaso Jucker57, Emmanuel Kasongo Yakusu7,58,12, Elizabeth Kearsley7,59, David Kenfack50,60, Alexander Koch5,61, Miguel E Leal62, Aurora Levesley4, Jeremy A Lindsell63,64, Janvier Lisingo65, Gabriela Lopez-Gonzalez4, Jon C Lovett4,66, Jean-Remy Makana65, Yadvinder Malhi67, Andrew R Marshall8,68,69, Jim Martin70, Emanuel H Martin60,71, Faustin M Mbayu12, Vincent P Medjibe39,72,73, Vianet Mihindou23,73, Edward T A Mitchard40, Sam Moore67, Pantaleo K T Munishi74, Natacha Nssi Bengone23, Lucas Ojo75, Fidèle Evouna Ondo73, Kelvin S-H Peh76,77, Georgia C Pickavance4, Axel Dalberg Poulsen52, John R Poulsen39, Lan Qie4,78, Jan Reitsma79, Francesco Rovero80,81, Michael D Swaine82, Joey Talbot4,83, James Taplin84, David M Taylor85, Duncan W Thomas86, Benjamin Toirambe7,87, John Tshibamba Mukendi7,12,88, Darlington Tuagben9,89, Peter M Umunay90,91, Geertje M F van der Heijden92, Hans Verbeeck59, Jason Vleminckx93,94, Simon Willcock95, Hannsjörg Wöll96, John T Woods97, Lise Zemagho17.
Abstract
Structurally intact tropical forests sequestered about half of the global terrestrial carbon uptake over the 1990s and early 2000s, removing about 15 per cent of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions1-3. Climate-driven vegetation models typically predict that this tropical forest 'carbon sink' will continue for decades4,5. Here we assess trends in the carbon sink using 244 structurally intact African tropical forests spanning 11 countries, compare them with 321 published plots from Amazonia and investigate the underlying drivers of the trends. The carbon sink in live aboveground biomass in intact African tropical forests has been stable for the three decades to 2015, at 0.66 tonnes of carbon per hectare per year (95 per cent confidence interval 0.53-0.79), in contrast to the long-term decline in Amazonian forests6. Therefore the carbon sink responses of Earth's two largest expanses of tropical forest have diverged. The difference is largely driven by carbon losses from tree mortality, with no detectable multi-decadal trend in Africa and a long-term increase in Amazonia. Both continents show increasing tree growth, consistent with the expected net effect of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide and air temperature7-9. Despite the past stability of the African carbon sink, our most intensively monitored plots suggest a post-2010 increase in carbon losses, delayed compared to Amazonia, indicating asynchronous carbon sink saturation on the two continents. A statistical model including carbon dioxide, temperature, drought and forest dynamics accounts for the observed trends and indicates a long-term future decline in the African sink, whereas the Amazonian sink continues to weaken rapidly. Overall, the uptake of carbon into Earth's intact tropical forests peaked in the 1990s. Given that the global terrestrial carbon sink is increasing in size, independent observations indicating greater recent carbon uptake into the Northern Hemisphere landmass10 reinforce our conclusion that the intact tropical forest carbon sink has already peaked. This saturation and ongoing decline of the tropical forest carbon sink has consequences for policies intended to stabilize Earth's climate.Entities:
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Year: 2020 PMID： 32132693 DOI： 10.1038/s41586-020-2035-0
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Nature ISSN： 0028-0836 Impact factor: 49.962