Journal article
Diversity and carbon storage across the tropical forest biome
Scientific Reports, Vol.7(39102)
2017
Abstract
Tropical forests are global centres of biodiversity and carbon storage. Many tropical countries aspire to protect forest to fulfil biodiversity and climate mitigation policy targets, but the conservation strategies needed to achieve these two functions depend critically on the tropical forest tree diversity-carbon storage relationship. Assessing this relationship is challenging due to the scarcity of inventories where carbon stocks in aboveground biomass and species identifications have been simultaneously and robustly quantified. Here, we compile a unique pan-Tropical dataset of 360 plots located in structurally intact old-growth closed-canopy forest, surveyed using standardised methods, allowing a multi-scale evaluation of diversity-carbon relationships in tropical forests. Diversity-carbon relationships among all plots at 1 ha scale across the tropics are absent, and within continents are either weak (Asia) or absent (Amazonia, Africa). A weak positive relationship is detectable within 1 ha plots, indicating that diversity effects in tropical forests may be scale dependent. The absence of clear diversity-carbon relationships at scales relevant to conservation planning means that carbon-centred conservation strategies will inevitably miss many high diversity ecosystems. As tropical forests can have any combination of tree diversity and carbon stocks both require explicit consideration when optimising policies to manage tropical carbon and biodiversity. © The Author(s) 2017.
Details
- Title
- Diversity and carbon storage across the tropical forest biome
- Authors
- M J P Sullivan (Author)J Talbot (Author)S L Lewis (Author)O L Phillips (Author)L Qie (Author)S K Begne (Author)J Chave (Author)A Cuni-Sanchez (Author)W Hubau (Author)G Lopez-Gonzalez (Author)L Miles (Author)A Monteagudo-Mendoza (Author)B Sonké (Author)T Sunderland (Author)H Ter Steege (Author)L J T White (Author)K Affum-Baffoe (Author)S I Aiba (Author)E C De Almeida (Author)E A de Oliveira (Author)P Alvarez-Loayza (Author)E Alvarez Davila (Author)A Andrade (Author)L E O Aragao (Author)P Ashton (Author)G A Aymard C (Author)T R Baker (Author)M Balinga (Author)L F Banin (Author)C Baraloto (Author)J F Bastin (Author)N Berry (Author)J Bogaert (Author)D Bonal (Author)F Bongers (Author)R Brienen (Author)J L C Camargo (Author)C Ceron (Author)V Chama Moscoso (Author)E Chezeaux (Author)C J Clark (Author)A Cogollo Pacheco (Author)J A Comiskey (Author)F Cornejo Valverde (Author)E N H Coronado (Author)G Dargie (Author)S J Davies (Author)C De Canniere (Author)M N Djuikouo K (Author)J L Doucet (Author)T L Erwin (Author)J S Espejo (Author)C E N Ewango (Author)S Fauset (Author)T R Feldpausch (Author)R Herrera (Author)M Gilpin (Author)E Gloor (Author)J S Hall (Author)D J Harris (Author)T B Hart (Author)K Kartawintata (Author)L P Kho (Author)K Kitayama (Author)S G W Laurance (Author)W F Laurance (Author)M E Leal (Author)T Lovejoy (Author)J C Lovett (Author)F M Lukasu (Author)J R Makana (Author)Y Malhi (Author)L Maracahipes (Author)B S Marimon (Author)B H Marimon Jnr (Author)Andrew R Marshall (Author) - University of York, United KingdomP S Morandi (Author)J T Mukendi (Author)J Mukinzi (Author)R Nilus (Author)P Nunez Vargas (Author)N C Pallqui Camacho (Author)G Pardo (Author)M Pena-Claros (Author)P Petronelli (Author)G C Pickavance (Author)A C Poulsen (Author)J R Poulsen (Author)R B Primack (Author)H Priyadi (Author)C A Quesada (Author)J Reitsma (Author)M Rejou-Mechain (Author)Z Restrepo (Author)E Rutishauser (Author)K A Salim (Author)R P Salomao (Author)I Samsoedin (Author)D Sheil (Author)R Sierra (Author)M Silveira (Author)J W F Slik (Author)L Steel (Author)H Taedoumg (Author)S Tan (Author)J W Terborgh (Author)S C Thomas (Author)M Toledo (Author)P M Umunay (Author)L Valenzuela Gamarra (Author)I C G Vieira (Author)V A Vos (Author)O Wang (Author)S Willcock (Author)L Zemagho (Author)
- Publication details
- Scientific Reports, Vol.7(39102); 12
- Publisher
- Nature Publishing Group
- Date published
- 2017
- DOI
- 10.1038/srep39102
- ISSN
- 2045-2322
- Copyright note
- Copyright © 2017 The Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- Organisation Unit
- Tropical Forests and People Research Centre; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Science, Technology and Engineering; Forest Research Institute
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99450679802621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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