Diversity and carbon storage across the tropical forest biome

• Author(s): Sullivan, Martin J.P. ; Talbot, Joey ; Lewis, Simon L. ; Phillips, Oliver L. ; Qie, Lan ; Begne, Serge K. ; Chave, Jérôme ; Cuni, Sanchez, Aida ; Hubau, Wannes ; Lopez-Gonzalez, Gabriela ; Miles, Lera ; Monteagudo-Mendoza, Abel ; Sonké, Bonaventure ; Sunderland, Terry Ch ; ter Steege, H. ; White, Lee J.T. ; Affum-Baffoe, Kofi ; Aiba, Shinichiro ; Almeida, Everton Cristo de ; Oliveira, Eddie Lenza de ; Álvarez-Loayza, Patricia ; Dávila, Esteban Álvarez ; Andrade, Ana C.S. ; Aragao, L. E.O.C. ; Ashton, Peter Shaw ; Aymard, Gerardo Antonio C. ; Baker, Timothy R. ; Balinga, Michael P.Bessike ; Banin, Lindsay F. ; Baraloto, Christopher ; Bastin, Jean François ; Berry, Nicholas J. ; Bogaert, Jan ; Bonal, Damien ; Bongers, Frans ; Brienen, Roel J.W. ; Camargo, José Luís Campana ; Cerón, Carlos E. ; Chama Moscoso, Victor ; Chézeaux, Éric ; Clark, Connie J. ; Pacheco, Álvaro Cogollo ; Comiskey, James A. ; Valverde, Fernando Cornejo ; Honorio Coronado, Euridice N. ; C., Dargie, Greta ; Davies, Stuart James ; Cannière, Charles de ; Djuikouo, Marie Noël K. ; Doucet, Jean Louis ; Erwin, Terry L. ; Espejo, Javier Silva ; Ewango, Corneille E.N. ; Fauset, Sophie ; Feldpausch, Ted R. ; Herrera, Rafael A. ; Gilpin, Martin ; Gloor, Manuel E. ; Hall, Jefferson Scott ; Harris, David J. ; Hart, Terese B. ; Kartawinata, Kuswata ; Kho, Lip Khoon ; Kitayama, Kanehiro ; Laurance, Susan G.W. ; Laurance, William F. ; Leal, Miguel E. ; Lovejoy, Thomas E. ; Lovett, Jon C. ; Lukasu, Faustin Mpanya ; Makana, Jean Rémy ; Malhi, Yadvinder Singh ; Maracahipes, Leandro ; Marimon, Beatriz Schwantes ; Marimon Júnior, Ben Hur ; Marshall, Andrew Robert ; Morandi, Paulo Sérgio ; Mukendi, John Tshibamba ; Mukinzi, Jacques ; Nilus, Reuben ; Vargas, Percy Núñez ; Pallqui Camacho, Nadir Carolina ; Pardo, Guido ; Pena-Claros, Marielos ; Pétronelli, Pascal ; Pickavance, Georgia C. ; Poulsen, Axel Dalberg ; Poulsen, John R. ; Primack, Richard B. ; Priyadi, Hari R. ; Quesada, Carlos Alberto ; Reitsma, Jan M. ; Réjou-Méchain, Maxime ; Restrepo, Zorayda ; Rutishauser, Ervan ; Salim, Kamariah Abu ; Salomão, Rafael Paiva ; Samsoedin, Ismayadi ; Sheil, Douglas ; Sierra, Rodrigo ; Silveira, Marcos ; Slik, J. W.Ferry ; Steel, Lisa ; Taedoumg, Hermann E. ; Tan, Sylvester Kheng San ; Terborgh, John W. ; Thomas, Sean C. ; Toledo, Marisol ; Umunay, Peter M. ; Gamarra, Luis Valenzuela ; Guimarães Vieira, Ima Cèlia ; Vos, Vincent A. ; Wang, Ophelia ; Willcock, Simon ; Zemagho, Lise A.
• Date: 2020
• Origin: Oasisbr
• Subject(s): Carbon; Africa; Asia; Biodiversity; Chemistry; Classification; Forest; Plant; Tropic Climate; Western Hemisphere; Africa; Americas; Asia; Biodiversity; Carbon; Forests; Plants; Tropical Climate
• Document Type: Journal article
• Language: English

Description

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.