Carbon sequestration potential of second-growth forest regeneration in the Latin American tropics

Chazdon, Robin L.; Broadbent, Eben N.; Rozendaal, Danaë M. A.; Bongers, Frans; Zambrano, Angélica M. Almeyda; Aide, T. Mitchell; Balvanera, Patricia; Becknell, Justin M.; Boukili, Vanessa; Brancalion, Pedro Henrique Santin; Craven, Dylan; Almeida-Cortez, Jarcilene S.; Cabral, George A. L.; Jong, Ben de; Denslow, Julie S.; Dent, Daisy H.; DeWalt, Saara J.; Dupuy, Juan Manuel; Durán, Sandra M.; Espírito-Santo, Mário M.; Fandiño, María; César, Ricardo G.; Hall, Jefferson S.; Hernández‐Stefanoni, José Luis; Jakovac, Catarina C.; Junqueira, André Braga; Kennard, Deborah K.; Letcher, Susan G.; Lohbeck, Madelon; Martı́nez-Ramos, Miguel; Massoca, Paulo Eduardo dos Santos; Meave, Jorge A.; Mesquita, Rita; Mora, Francisco; Muñoz, Rodrigo; Muscarella, Robert; Nunes, Yule Roberta Ferreira; Ochoa-Gaona, Susana; Orihuela-Belmonte, Edith; Peña-Claros, Marielos; Pérez‐García, Eduardo A.; Piotto, Daniel; Powers, Jennifer S.; Rodríguez‐Velázquez, Jorge; Romero, Eunice; Ruíz, Jorge; Saldarriaga, Juan; Sánchez‐Azofeifa, Arturo; Schwartz, Naomi B.; Steininger, Marc K.; Swenson, Nathan G.; Uriarte, María; Breugel, Michiel van; Wal, Hans van der; Veloso, Maria das Dores Magalhães; Vester, H.F.M.; Vieira, Ima Célia Guimarães; Bentos, Tony Vizcarra; Williamson, G. Bruce; Poorter, Lourens

doi:10.1126/sciadv.1501639

Cited by 470 publications

(362 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Carbon changes due to deforestation in the 2000s have been estimated for the tropical regions [9,11,12,103] but most estimates consider only gross emissions from aboveground biomass, do not include forest regrowth processes and assume no biomass in the post-deforestation land uses. However, there is growing evidence that carbon removals due to forest regrowth play an important role in the carbon cycle at global and local scales [13][14][15][16], and their impact has been included in a recent assessment of carbon changes in the tropics during the 1990-2010 period [9]. Similarly, changes in soil organic carbon (OC), even though they tend to occur at a slower pace than those in the biomass pool, have a significant impact on net emissions occurring in the tropics [17,18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon emissions from land cover change in Central Vietnam

et al. 2016

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The carbon emissions and removals due to land cover changes between 2001 and 2010 in the Vu Gia Thu Bon River Basin, Central Vietnam, were estimated using Landsat satellite images and 3083 forest inventory plots. The net emissions from above-and belowground vegetation biomass were equal to 1.76 § 0.12 Tg CO 2 , about 1.1% of the existing stocks. The vast majority of carbon emissions were due to forest loss, with the conversion of forest to cropland accounting for 67% of net emissions. Forest regrowth had a substantial impact on net carbon changes, removing 22% of emissions from deforestation. Most deforestation occurred in regrowth forest (60%) and plantations (29%), characterized by low carbon stock density. Thus identifying the type of forest where deforestation occurred and using local field data were critical with net emissions being 4 times larger when considering only one forest class with average carbon stock, and 5-7 times higher when using literature default values or global emission maps. Carbon emissions from soil (up to 30 cm) were estimated for the main land change class. Due to the low emission factors from biomass, soils proved a key emission category, accounting for 30% of total land emissions that occurred during the monitoring period.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon emissions from land cover change in Central Vietnam

et al. 2016

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“…In tropical regions, fallow lengths in shifting cultivation range from 10 to 40 years (Bruun et al, 2006;Mertz et al, 2008;Thrupp et al, 1997;van Vliet et al, 2012), with a tendency of reduction in fallow length. In Latin American tropics, agricultural abandonment has already led to prominent growth of secondary forests (Chazdon et al, 2016;Poorter et al, 2016). Forest management, including wood harvest, is more common in temperate and boreal regions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Representing anthropogenic gross land use change, wood harvest, and forest age dynamics in a global vegetation model ORCHIDEE-MICT v8.4.2

Ciais

Luyssaert

et al. 2018

Geosci. Model Dev.

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Abstract. Land use change (LUC) is among the main anthropogenic disturbances in the global carbon cycle. Here we present the model developments in a global dynamic vegetation model ORCHIDEE-MICT v8.4.2 for a more realistic representation of LUC processes. First, we included gross land use change (primarily shifting cultivation) and forest wood harvest in addition to net land use change. Second, we included sub-grid evenly aged land cohorts to represent secondary forests and to keep track of the transient stage of agricultural lands since LUC. Combination of these two features allows the simulation of shifting cultivation with a rotation length involving mainly secondary forests instead of primary ones. Furthermore, a set of decision rules regarding the land cohorts to be targeted in different LUC processes have been implemented. Idealized site-scale simulation has been performed for miombo woodlands in southern Africa assuming an annual land turnover rate of 5 % grid cell area between forest and cropland. The result shows that the model can correctly represent forest recovery and cohort aging arising from agricultural abandonment. Such a land turnover process, even though without a net change in land cover, yields carbon emissions largely due to the imbalance between the fast release from forest clearing and the slow uptake from agricultural abandonment. The simulation with sub-grid land cohorts gives lower emissions than without, mainly because the cleared secondary forests have a lower biomass carbon stock than the mature forests that are otherwise cleared when sub-grid land cohorts are not considered. Over the region of southern Africa, the model is able to account for changes in different forest cohort areas along with the historical changes in different LUC activities, including regrowth of old forests when LUC area decreases. Our developments provide possibilities to account for continental or global forest demographic change resulting from past anthropogenic and natural disturbances.

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“…Tropical forests are crucial in maintaining global biogeochemical cycles, conserving biodiversity [3,4], and mitigating climate change [5][6][7]. Moreover, tropical forests worldwide provide a livelihood for millions of people, many of them belonging to marginalized indigenous populations [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Updating Bark Proportions for the Estimation of Tropical Timber Volumes by Indigenous Community-Based Forest Enterprises in Quintana Roo, Mexico

Rosell

Wehenkel

Pérez-Martínez

et al. 2017

Forests

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Sustainable management of tropical forests is essential for conserving the ecosystem services they provide and protecting the livelihoods of the millions of people who depend on these forests. Community-based forest management in Quintana Roo, Mexico, has shown that conserving forests while generating economic benefits is achievable in the tropics. However, this management is carried out with technical gaps that jeopardize sustainable use of these resources. Crucial among these gaps is a lack of equations for precise calculations of logged timber volumes. Current equations employ a proportion of bark volume (PBV) of 0.14 for mahogany and a flat 0.10 for species with dense woods, despite their wide variation in bark thickness. Here, using Meyer's method, we calculated species-specific PBVs for the most commercially-important species in the Felipe Carrillo Puerto community-based logging operation. For most species, the new PBVs were smaller, indicating that wood volumes are currently underestimated. However, for two species, PBVs were higher. New values could influence the profits of the local enterprise and on the management of some of the most commercially-important species of Mexico's tropical forests through changes in the numbers of individuals felled.

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Carbon sequestration potential of second-growth forest regeneration in the Latin American tropics

Abstract: Models reveal the high carbon mitigation potential of tropical forest regeneration.

Cited by 470 publications

References 41 publications

Carbon emissions from land cover change in Central Vietnam

Carbon emissions from land cover change in Central Vietnam

Representing anthropogenic gross land use change, wood harvest, and forest age dynamics in a global vegetation model ORCHIDEE-MICT v8.4.2

Updating Bark Proportions for the Estimation of Tropical Timber Volumes by Indigenous Community-Based Forest Enterprises in Quintana Roo, Mexico

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