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 alone would inevitably miss many high diversity ecosystems. As tropical forests can have any combination of tree diversity and carbon stocks both will require explicit consideration when optimising policies to manage tropical carbon and biodiversity.

Metadata

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Sullivan, MJP https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5955-0483 Talbot, J https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6520-4560 Lewis, SL Phillips, OL https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8993-6168 Qie, L Begne, SK Chave, J Cuni-Sanchez, A Hubau, W Lopez-Gonzalez, G https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0814-8830 Miles, L Monteagudo-Mendoza, A Sonké, B Sunderland, T ter Steege, H White, LJT Affum-Baffoe, K Aiba, S Almeida, EC Almeida de Oliveira, E Alvarez-Loayza, P Álvarez Dávila, E Andrade, A Aragão, LEOC Ashton, P Aymard C., GA Baker, TR Balinga, M Banin, LF Baraloto, C Bastin, J-F Berry, N Bogaert, J Bonal, D Bongers, F Brienen, R https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5397-5755 Camargo, JLC Cerón, C Chama Moscoso, V Chezeaux, E Clark, CJ Cogollo Pacheco, A Comiskey, JA Cornejo Valverde, F Honorio Coronado, E Dargie, G Davies, SJ De Canniere, C Djuikouo K., MN Doucet, J-L Erwin, TL Espejo, JS Ewango, CEN Fauset, S Feldpausch, TR Herrera, R Gilpin, M https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5539-8277 Gloor, E https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9384-6341 Hall, J Harris, DJ Hart, TB Kartawinata, K Khoon Kho, L Kitayama, K Laurance, SGW Laurance, WF Leal, ME Lovejoy, T Lovett, J https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5839-3770 Lukasu, FM Makana, JR Malhi, Y Maracahipes, L Marimon, BS Marimon, BH Marshall, AR Morandi, PS Mukendi, JT Mukinzi, J Nilus, R Núñez Vargas, P Pallqui Camacho, NC https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4596-0905 Pardo, G Peña-Claros, M Pétronelli, P Pickavance, GC Poulsen, AD Poulsen, JR Primack, RB Priyadi, H Quesada, CA Reitsma, J Réjou-Méchain, M Restrepo, Z Rutishauser, E Salim, KA Salomão, RP Samsoedin, I Sheil, D Sierra, R Silveira, M Slik, JWF Steel, L Taedoumg, H Tan, S Terborgh, JW Thomas, SC Toledo, M Umunay, P Valenzuela Gamarra, L Vieira, ICG Vos, VA Wang, O Willcock, S Zemagho, L
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© The Author(s) 2017. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Dates:	Accepted: 26 October 2016 Published (online): 17 January 2017 Published: 17 January 2017
Institution:	The University of Leeds
Academic Units:	The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > Institute for Transport Studies (Leeds) > ITS: Sustainable Transport Policy (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > Ecology & Global Change (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > River Basin Processes & Management (Leeds) > SOG: water@leeds
Funding Information:	Funder Grant number EU - European Union 291585 (ERC 2011 ADG) NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) NE/F005806/1 Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation N/A Leverhulme Trust FRG45397#5 Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation N/A NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) NE/D005590/1 Royal Society UF041330 Leverhulme Trust PLP-2011-107 NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) NE/N012542/1
Depositing User:	Symplectic Publications
Date Deposited:	07 Nov 2016 10:59
Last Modified:	23 Jun 2023 22:16
Published Version:	http://doi.org/10.1038/srep39102
Status:	Published
Publisher:	Nature Publishing Group
Identification Number:	10.1038/srep39102
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:106986

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Diversity and carbon storage across the tropical forest biome

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