Dataset Information

Diversity and carbon storage across the tropical forest biome.

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.

SUBMITTER: Sullivan MJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5240619 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Diversity and carbon storage across the tropical forest biome.

Sullivan Martin J P MJ Talbot Joey J Lewis Simon L SL Phillips Oliver L OL Qie Lan L Begne Serge K SK Chave Jerôme J Cuni-Sanchez Aida A Hubau Wannes W Lopez-Gonzalez Gabriela G Miles Lera L Monteagudo-Mendoza Abel A Sonké Bonaventure B Sunderland Terry T Ter Steege Hans H White Lee J T LJ Affum-Baffoe Kofi K Aiba Shin-Ichiro SI de Almeida Everton Cristo EC de Oliveira Edmar Almeida EA Alvarez-Loayza Patricia P Dávila Esteban Álvarez EÁ Andrade Ana A Aragão Luiz E O C LE Ashton Peter P Aymard C Gerardo A GA Baker Timothy R TR Balinga Michael M Banin Lindsay F LF Baraloto Christopher C Bastin Jean-Francois JF Berry Nicholas N Bogaert Jan J Bonal Damien D Bongers Frans F Brienen Roel R Camargo José Luís C JL Cerón Carlos C Moscoso Victor Chama VC Chezeaux Eric E Clark Connie J CJ Pacheco Álvaro Cogollo ÁC Comiskey James A JA Valverde Fernando Cornejo FC Coronado Eurídice N Honorio EN Dargie Greta G Davies Stuart J SJ De Canniere Charles C Djuikouo K Marie Noel MN Doucet Jean-Louis JL Erwin Terry L TL Espejo Javier Silva JS Ewango Corneille E N CE Fauset Sophie S Feldpausch Ted R TR Herrera Rafael R Gilpin Martin M Gloor Emanuel E Hall Jefferson S JS Harris David J DJ Hart Terese B TB Kartawinata Kuswata K Kho Lip Khoon LK Kitayama Kanehiro K Laurance Susan G W SG Laurance William F WF Leal Miguel E ME Lovejoy Thomas T Lovett Jon C JC Lukasu Faustin Mpanya FM Makana Jean-Remy JR Malhi Yadvinder Y Maracahipes Leandro L Marimon Beatriz S BS Junior Ben Hur Marimon BH Marshall Andrew R AR Morandi Paulo S PS Mukendi John Tshibamba JT Mukinzi Jaques J Nilus Reuben R Vargas Percy Núñez PN Camacho Nadir C Pallqui NC Pardo Guido G Peña-Claros Marielos M Pétronelli Pascal P Pickavance Georgia C GC Poulsen Axel Dalberg AD Poulsen John R JR Primack Richard B RB Priyadi Hari H Quesada Carlos A CA Reitsma Jan J Réjou-Méchain Maxime M Restrepo Zorayda Z Rutishauser Ervan E Salim Kamariah Abu KA Salomão Rafael P RP Samsoedin Ismayadi I Sheil Douglas D Sierra Rodrigo R Silveira Marcos M Slik J W Ferry JW Steel Lisa L Taedoumg Hermann H Tan Sylvester S Terborgh John W JW Thomas Sean C SC Toledo Marisol M Umunay Peter M PM Gamarra Luis Valenzuela LV Vieira Ima Célia Guimarães IC Vos Vincent A VA Wang Ophelia O Willcock Simon S Zemagho Lise L

Scientific reports 20170117

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 sim ...[more]

PMID: 28094794

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Project description:Research about biodiversity-productivity relationships has focused on herbaceous ecosystems, with results from tree field studies only recently beginning to emerge. Also, the latter are concentrated largely in the temperate zone. Tree species diversity generally is much higher in subtropical and tropical than in temperate or boreal forests, with reasons not fully understood. Niche overlap and thus complementarity in the use of resources that support productivity may be lower in forests than in herbaceous ecosystems, suggesting weaker productivity responses to diversity change in forests. We studied stand basal area, vertical structure, leaf area, and their relationship with tree species richness in a subtropical forest in south-east China. Permanent forest plots of 30 x 30 m were selected to span largely independent gradients in tree species richness and secondary successional age. Plots with higher tree species richness had a higher stand basal area. Also, stand basal area increases over a 4-year census interval were larger at high than at low diversity. These effects translated into increased carbon stocks in aboveground phytomass (estimated using allometric equations). A higher variability in tree height in more diverse plots suggested that these effects were facilitated by denser canopy packing due to architectural complementarity between species. In contrast, leaf area was not or even negatively affected by tree diversity, indicating a decoupling of carbon accumulation from leaf area. Alternatively, the same community leaf area might have assimilated more C per time interval in more than in less diverse plots because of differences in leaf turnover and productivity or because of differences in the display of leaves in vertical and horizontal space. Overall, our study suggests that in species-rich forests niche-based processes support a positive diversity-productivity relationship and that this translates into increased carbon storage in long-lived woody structures. Given the high growth rates of these forests during secondary succession, our results further indicate that a forest management promoting tree diversity after disturbance may accelerate CO2 sequestration from the atmosphere and thus be relevant in a climate-change context.

Dataset Information

Diversity and carbon storage across the tropical forest biome.

Publications

Diversity and carbon storage across the tropical forest biome.

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