Resumen
Forests are a substantial terrestrial carbon sink, but anthropogenic changes in land use and climate have considerably reduced the scale of this system 1. Remote-sensing estimates to quantify carbon losses from global forests 2–5 are characterized by considerable uncertainty and we lack a comprehensive ground-sourced evaluation to benchmark these estimates. Here we combine several ground-sourced 6 and satellite-derived approaches 2,7,8 to evaluate the scale of the global forest carbon potential outside agricultural and urban lands. Despite regional variation, the predictions demonstrated remarkable consistency at a global scale, with only a 12% difference between the ground-sourced and satellite-derived estimates. At present, global forest carbon storage is markedly under the natural potential, with a total deficit of 226 Gt (model range = 151–363 Gt) in areas with low human footprint. Most (61%, 139 Gt C) of this potential is in areas with existing forests, in which ecosystem protection can allow forests to recover to maturity. The remaining 39% (87 Gt C) of potential lies in regions in which forests have been removed or fragmented. Although forests cannot be a substitute for emissions reductions, our results support the idea 2,3,9 that the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of diverse forests offer valuable contributions to meeting global climate and biodiversity targets.
Idioma original | Inglés |
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Páginas (desde-hasta) | 92-101 |
Número de páginas | 10 |
Publicación | Nature |
Volumen | 624 |
N.º | 7990 |
DOI | |
Estado | Publicada - 7 dic. 2023 |
Nota bibliográfica
Publisher Copyright:© 2023, The Author(s).
Financiación
Financiadores | Número del financiador |
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DOB | |
Universite de Toulouse, University of Leeds | |
Spanish Forest Inventories | |
Generalitat de Catalunya | |
ICNF-Instituto da Conservação da Natureza | |
Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement | |
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft | |
China Scholarship Council | |
NVS | |
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute | |
LUCAS programme for the New Zealand Ministry for the Environment | |
NZ National Vegetation Survey | |
TmFO | |
University College London | |
Royal Society | |
GFBI | |
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis | |
Bernina Foundation | |
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation | |
UK Research and Innovation | |
European Commission | 101059548 |
Natural Environment Research Council | NE/D005590/1, NE/N011570/1, NE/I028122/1, NE/G012067/1, NE/S011811/1, NE/W001691/1, NE/R017980/1, NE/D010306/1, NE/B504630/1 |
European Research Council | 291585 |
GIST Cancer Research Fund | ICA\R1\180100 |
Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico | 520053/1998-2 |
Grantová Agentura České Republiky | 21-06446 S |
European Space Agency | 4000123662/18/I-NB |
National Council for Higher Education | CNFIS-FDI-2023-F-0579 |
Villum Fonden | 16549 |
Seventh Framework Programme | 265171 |
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung | 00P3_193646 |
Danmarks Grundforskningsfond | DNRF173 |
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia | UIDB/04033/2020 |