The carbon sink of secondary and degraded humid tropical forests

Viola H A Heinrich; Christelle Vancutsem; Ricardo Dalagnol; Thais Rosan; Dominic Fawcett; Celso Silva-Junior; Henrique  Cassol; Frédéric Achard; Tommaso Jucker; Carlos A. Silva; Joanna Isobel House; Stephen Sitch; Tristram Hales; Luiz E O C Aragão

doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05679-w

The carbon sink of secondary and degraded humid tropical forests

Viola H A Heinrich, Christelle Vancutsem, Ricardo Dalagnol, Thais Rosan, Dominic Fawcett, Celso Silva-Junior, Henrique Cassol, Frédéric Achard, Tommaso Jucker, Carlos A. Silva, Joanna Isobel House, Stephen Sitch, Tristram Hales, Luiz E O C Aragão

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

85 Citations (Scopus)

338 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The globally important carbon sink of intact, old-growth tropical humid forests is declining because of climate change, deforestation and degradation from fire and logging1–3. Recovering tropical secondary and degraded forests now cover about 10% of the tropical forest area4, but how much carbon they accumulate remains uncertain. Here we quantify the aboveground carbon sink of recovering forests across three major continuous tropical humid regions: the Amazon, Borneo and Central Africa5,6. Based on satellite data products4,7, our analysis encompasses the heterogenous spatial and temporal patterns of growth in degraded and secondary forests, influenced by key environmental and anthropogenic drivers. In the first twenty years of recovery, regrowth rates in Borneo were up to 45% and 58% higher than in Central Africa and the Amazon, respectively. This is due to variables such as temperature, water deficit and disturbance regimes. We find that regrowing degraded and secondary forests accumulated 107 Tg C yr-1 (90 to 130) between 1984-2018, counterbalancing 26% (21% to 34%) of carbon emissions from humid tropical forest loss during the same period. Protecting old-growth forests is therefore a priority. Additionally, we estimate that, conserving recovering degraded and secondary forests can have a feasible future carbon sink potential of 53 Tg C yr-1 (44 to 62), across the major tropical regions studied.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	436-442
Number of pages	7
Journal	Nature
Volume	615
Issue number	7952
Early online date	16 Mar 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05679-w
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 16 Mar 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank A. Esquivel-Muelbert and E. Mitchard for their valuable input during the preparation of this manuscript. We thank M. Brasika, A. Jumail, H. R. Yen, C. Cheng, L. Mercado, J. Echeverría and M. Heinrich for translating the summary paragraph (translations available in the Supplementary Information). V.H.A.H. was supported by a NERC GW4+ Doctoral Training Partnership studentship from the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/L002434/1). R.D. was supported by São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) grant 2019/21662-8. T.J. was supported by a UK NERC Independent Research Fellowship (NE/S01537X/1). V.H.A.H., T.M.R., D.F. and S.S. were supported by the RECCAP2 project, which is part of the ESA Climate Change Initiative (contract no. 4000123002/18/I-NB) and the H2020 European Institute of Innovation and Technology (4C; grant no. 821003). H.L.G.C. was supported by São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) grant nos. 2018/14423-4 and 2020/02656-4. C.V. was supported by the Directorate General for Climate Action of the European Commission through the ForMonPol (Forest Monitoring for Policies) Administrative Arrangement. C.H.L.S.-J. was supported by The University of Manchester through the ‘Forest fragmentation mapping of Amazon and its vulnerable margin Aamzon-Cerrado transition forests' project. This work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). We thank the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol for their extra support. This research was financed in part by the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/L002434/1). For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) public copyright license to any Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version arising from this submission.

Funding Information:
We thank A. Esquivel-Muelbert and E. Mitchard for their valuable input during the preparation of this manuscript. We thank M. Brasika, A. Jumail, H. R. Yen, C. Cheng, L. Mercado, J. Echeverría and M. Heinrich for translating the summary paragraph (translations available in the Supplementary Information). V.H.A.H. was supported by a NERC GW4+ Doctoral Training Partnership studentship from the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/L002434/1). R.D. was supported by São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) grant 2019/21662-8. T.J. was supported by a UK NERC Independent Research Fellowship (NE/S01537X/1). V.H.A.H., T.M.R., D.F. and S.S. were supported by the RECCAP2 project, which is part of the ESA Climate Change Initiative (contract no. 4000123002/18/I-NB) and the H2020 European Institute of Innovation and Technology (4C; grant no. 821003). H.L.G.C. was supported by São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) grant nos. 2018/14423-4 and 2020/02656-4. C.V. was supported by the Directorate General for Climate Action of the European Commission through the ForMonPol (Forest Monitoring for Policies) Administrative Arrangement. C.H.L.S.-J. was supported by The University of Manchester through the ‘Forest fragmentation mapping of Amazon and its vulnerable margin Aamzon-Cerrado transition forests' project. This work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). We thank the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol for their extra support. This research was financed in part by the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/L002434/1). For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) public copyright license to any Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version arising from this submission.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1038/s41586-022-05679-w

Full-text PDF (accepted author manuscript)
This is the accepted author manuscript (AAM). The final published version (version of record) is available online via Nature at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05679-w. Please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) public copyright license to any Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version arising from this submission
Accepted author manuscript, 2.71 MBLicence: CC BY

Handle.net

Persistent link

Data and code from paper: The carbon sink of secondary and degraded humid tropical forests
Heinrich, V. (Creator), Vancutsem, C. (Creator), Dalagnol, R. (Creator), Rosan, T. (Creator), Fawcett, D. (Creator), Silva-Junior, C. H. L. (Creator), Cassol, H. (Creator), Achard, F. (Creator), Jucker, T. (Creator), Silva, C. A. (Creator), House, J. (Creator), Sitch, S. (Creator), Hales, T. C. (Creator) & Aragão, L. E. O. C. (Creator), Zenodo, 23 Nov 2022
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7515854, https://zenodo.org/record/7515854
Dataset
Data and code from paper: The carbon sink of secondary and degraded humid tropical forests, Version 1
Heinrich, V. (Creator), Vancutsem, C. (Creator), Dalagnol, R. (Creator), Rosan, T. (Creator), Fawcett, D. (Creator), Silva-Junior, C. H. L. (Creator), Cassol, H. (Creator), Achard, F. (Creator), Jucker, T. (Creator), Silva, C. A. (Creator), House, J. (Creator), Sitch, S. (Creator), Hales, T. C. (Creator) & Aragão, L. E. O. C. (Creator), Zenodo, 23 Nov 2022
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7330549, https://zenodo.org/record/7330549
Dataset

Cite this

Heinrich, V. H. A., Vancutsem, C., Dalagnol, R., Rosan, T., Fawcett, D., Silva-Junior, C., Cassol, H., Achard, F., Jucker, T., Silva, C. A., House, J. I., Sitch, S., Hales, T., & Aragão, L. E. O. C. (2023). The carbon sink of secondary and degraded humid tropical forests. Nature, 615(7952), 436-442. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05679-w

@article{2e75d8d86c4f4b7b90172348b19f482f,

title = "The carbon sink of secondary and degraded humid tropical forests",

abstract = "The globally important carbon sink of intact, old-growth tropical humid forests is declining because of climate change, deforestation and degradation from fire and logging1–3. Recovering tropical secondary and degraded forests now cover about 10% of the tropical forest area4, but how much carbon they accumulate remains uncertain. Here we quantify the aboveground carbon sink of recovering forests across three major continuous tropical humid regions: the Amazon, Borneo and Central Africa5,6. Based on satellite data products4,7, our analysis encompasses the heterogenous spatial and temporal patterns of growth in degraded and secondary forests, influenced by key environmental and anthropogenic drivers. In the first twenty years of recovery, regrowth rates in Borneo were up to 45% and 58% higher than in Central Africa and the Amazon, respectively. This is due to variables such as temperature, water deficit and disturbance regimes. We find that regrowing degraded and secondary forests accumulated 107 Tg C yr-1 (90 to 130) between 1984-2018, counterbalancing 26% (21% to 34%) of carbon emissions from humid tropical forest loss during the same period. Protecting old-growth forests is therefore a priority. Additionally, we estimate that, conserving recovering degraded and secondary forests can have a feasible future carbon sink potential of 53 Tg C yr-1 (44 to 62), across the major tropical regions studied. ",

author = "Heinrich, {Viola H A} and Christelle Vancutsem and Ricardo Dalagnol and Thais Rosan and Dominic Fawcett and Celso Silva-Junior and Henrique Cassol and Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric Achard and Tommaso Jucker and Silva, {Carlos A.} and House, {Joanna Isobel} and Stephen Sitch and Tristram Hales and Arag{\~a}o, {Luiz E O C}",

note = "Funding Information: We thank A. Esquivel-Muelbert and E. Mitchard for their valuable input during the preparation of this manuscript. We thank M. Brasika, A. Jumail, H. R. Yen, C. Cheng, L. Mercado, J. Echeverr{\'i}a and M. Heinrich for translating the summary paragraph (translations available in the Supplementary Information). V.H.A.H. was supported by a NERC GW4+ Doctoral Training Partnership studentship from the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/L002434/1). R.D. was supported by S{\~a}o Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) grant 2019/21662-8. T.J. was supported by a UK NERC Independent Research Fellowship (NE/S01537X/1). V.H.A.H., T.M.R., D.F. and S.S. were supported by the RECCAP2 project, which is part of the ESA Climate Change Initiative (contract no. 4000123002/18/I-NB) and the H2020 European Institute of Innovation and Technology (4C; grant no. 821003). H.L.G.C. was supported by S{\~a}o Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) grant nos. 2018/14423-4 and 2020/02656-4. C.V. was supported by the Directorate General for Climate Action of the European Commission through the ForMonPol (Forest Monitoring for Policies) Administrative Arrangement. C.H.L.S.-J. was supported by The University of Manchester through the {\textquoteleft}Forest fragmentation mapping of Amazon and its vulnerable margin Aamzon-Cerrado transition forests' project. This work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). We thank the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol for their extra support. This research was financed in part by the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/L002434/1). For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) public copyright license to any Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version arising from this submission. Funding Information: We thank A. Esquivel-Muelbert and E. Mitchard for their valuable input during the preparation of this manuscript. We thank M. Brasika, A. Jumail, H. R. Yen, C. Cheng, L. Mercado, J. Echeverr{\'i}a and M. Heinrich for translating the summary paragraph (translations available in the Supplementary Information). V.H.A.H. was supported by a NERC GW4+ Doctoral Training Partnership studentship from the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/L002434/1). R.D. was supported by S{\~a}o Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) grant 2019/21662-8. T.J. was supported by a UK NERC Independent Research Fellowship (NE/S01537X/1). V.H.A.H., T.M.R., D.F. and S.S. were supported by the RECCAP2 project, which is part of the ESA Climate Change Initiative (contract no. 4000123002/18/I-NB) and the H2020 European Institute of Innovation and Technology (4C; grant no. 821003). H.L.G.C. was supported by S{\~a}o Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) grant nos. 2018/14423-4 and 2020/02656-4. C.V. was supported by the Directorate General for Climate Action of the European Commission through the ForMonPol (Forest Monitoring for Policies) Administrative Arrangement. C.H.L.S.-J. was supported by The University of Manchester through the {\textquoteleft}Forest fragmentation mapping of Amazon and its vulnerable margin Aamzon-Cerrado transition forests' project. This work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). We thank the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol for their extra support. This research was financed in part by the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/L002434/1). For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) public copyright license to any Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version arising from this submission. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.",

year = "2023",

month = mar,

day = "16",

doi = "10.1038/s41586-022-05679-w",

language = "English",

volume = "615",

pages = "436--442",

journal = "Nature",

issn = "0028-0836",

publisher = "Springer Nature",

number = "7952",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - The carbon sink of secondary and degraded humid tropical forests

AU - Heinrich, Viola H A

AU - Vancutsem, Christelle

AU - Dalagnol, Ricardo

AU - Rosan, Thais

AU - Fawcett, Dominic

AU - Silva-Junior, Celso

AU - Cassol, Henrique

AU - Achard, Frédéric

AU - Jucker, Tommaso

AU - Silva, Carlos A.

AU - House, Joanna Isobel

AU - Sitch, Stephen

AU - Hales, Tristram

AU - Aragão, Luiz E O C

N1 - Funding Information: We thank A. Esquivel-Muelbert and E. Mitchard for their valuable input during the preparation of this manuscript. We thank M. Brasika, A. Jumail, H. R. Yen, C. Cheng, L. Mercado, J. Echeverría and M. Heinrich for translating the summary paragraph (translations available in the Supplementary Information). V.H.A.H. was supported by a NERC GW4+ Doctoral Training Partnership studentship from the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/L002434/1). R.D. was supported by São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) grant 2019/21662-8. T.J. was supported by a UK NERC Independent Research Fellowship (NE/S01537X/1). V.H.A.H., T.M.R., D.F. and S.S. were supported by the RECCAP2 project, which is part of the ESA Climate Change Initiative (contract no. 4000123002/18/I-NB) and the H2020 European Institute of Innovation and Technology (4C; grant no. 821003). H.L.G.C. was supported by São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) grant nos. 2018/14423-4 and 2020/02656-4. C.V. was supported by the Directorate General for Climate Action of the European Commission through the ForMonPol (Forest Monitoring for Policies) Administrative Arrangement. C.H.L.S.-J. was supported by The University of Manchester through the ‘Forest fragmentation mapping of Amazon and its vulnerable margin Aamzon-Cerrado transition forests' project. This work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). We thank the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol for their extra support. This research was financed in part by the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/L002434/1). For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) public copyright license to any Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version arising from this submission. Funding Information: We thank A. Esquivel-Muelbert and E. Mitchard for their valuable input during the preparation of this manuscript. We thank M. Brasika, A. Jumail, H. R. Yen, C. Cheng, L. Mercado, J. Echeverría and M. Heinrich for translating the summary paragraph (translations available in the Supplementary Information). V.H.A.H. was supported by a NERC GW4+ Doctoral Training Partnership studentship from the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/L002434/1). R.D. was supported by São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) grant 2019/21662-8. T.J. was supported by a UK NERC Independent Research Fellowship (NE/S01537X/1). V.H.A.H., T.M.R., D.F. and S.S. were supported by the RECCAP2 project, which is part of the ESA Climate Change Initiative (contract no. 4000123002/18/I-NB) and the H2020 European Institute of Innovation and Technology (4C; grant no. 821003). H.L.G.C. was supported by São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) grant nos. 2018/14423-4 and 2020/02656-4. C.V. was supported by the Directorate General for Climate Action of the European Commission through the ForMonPol (Forest Monitoring for Policies) Administrative Arrangement. C.H.L.S.-J. was supported by The University of Manchester through the ‘Forest fragmentation mapping of Amazon and its vulnerable margin Aamzon-Cerrado transition forests' project. This work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). We thank the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol for their extra support. This research was financed in part by the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/L002434/1). For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) public copyright license to any Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version arising from this submission. Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.

PY - 2023/3/16

Y1 - 2023/3/16

N2 - The globally important carbon sink of intact, old-growth tropical humid forests is declining because of climate change, deforestation and degradation from fire and logging1–3. Recovering tropical secondary and degraded forests now cover about 10% of the tropical forest area4, but how much carbon they accumulate remains uncertain. Here we quantify the aboveground carbon sink of recovering forests across three major continuous tropical humid regions: the Amazon, Borneo and Central Africa5,6. Based on satellite data products4,7, our analysis encompasses the heterogenous spatial and temporal patterns of growth in degraded and secondary forests, influenced by key environmental and anthropogenic drivers. In the first twenty years of recovery, regrowth rates in Borneo were up to 45% and 58% higher than in Central Africa and the Amazon, respectively. This is due to variables such as temperature, water deficit and disturbance regimes. We find that regrowing degraded and secondary forests accumulated 107 Tg C yr-1 (90 to 130) between 1984-2018, counterbalancing 26% (21% to 34%) of carbon emissions from humid tropical forest loss during the same period. Protecting old-growth forests is therefore a priority. Additionally, we estimate that, conserving recovering degraded and secondary forests can have a feasible future carbon sink potential of 53 Tg C yr-1 (44 to 62), across the major tropical regions studied.

AB - The globally important carbon sink of intact, old-growth tropical humid forests is declining because of climate change, deforestation and degradation from fire and logging1–3. Recovering tropical secondary and degraded forests now cover about 10% of the tropical forest area4, but how much carbon they accumulate remains uncertain. Here we quantify the aboveground carbon sink of recovering forests across three major continuous tropical humid regions: the Amazon, Borneo and Central Africa5,6. Based on satellite data products4,7, our analysis encompasses the heterogenous spatial and temporal patterns of growth in degraded and secondary forests, influenced by key environmental and anthropogenic drivers. In the first twenty years of recovery, regrowth rates in Borneo were up to 45% and 58% higher than in Central Africa and the Amazon, respectively. This is due to variables such as temperature, water deficit and disturbance regimes. We find that regrowing degraded and secondary forests accumulated 107 Tg C yr-1 (90 to 130) between 1984-2018, counterbalancing 26% (21% to 34%) of carbon emissions from humid tropical forest loss during the same period. Protecting old-growth forests is therefore a priority. Additionally, we estimate that, conserving recovering degraded and secondary forests can have a feasible future carbon sink potential of 53 Tg C yr-1 (44 to 62), across the major tropical regions studied.

U2 - 10.1038/s41586-022-05679-w

DO - 10.1038/s41586-022-05679-w

M3 - Article (Academic Journal)

C2 - 36922608

SN - 0028-0836

VL - 615

SP - 436

EP - 442

JO - Nature

JF - Nature

IS - 7952

ER -

The carbon sink of secondary and degraded humid tropical forests

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Handle.net

Fingerprint

Datasets

Data and code from paper: The carbon sink of secondary and degraded humid tropical forests

Data and code from paper: The carbon sink of secondary and degraded humid tropical forests, Version 1

Cite this