Forests planted with many different tree species have substantially higher aboveground carbon stocks and greater carbon fluxes than monocultures, shows an international study led by the University of Freiburg.
Forests planted with many different tree species have substantially higher aboveground carbon stocks and greater carbon fluxes than monocultures, shows an international study led by the University of Freiburg.
Forests with many tree species can store significantly more carbon than those with only one species: An international study led by the University of Freiburg, published in Global Change Biology, supports this finding using data from the world’s oldest tropical tree diversity experiment. Researchers found that forests planted with five tree species had substantially higher aboveground carbon stocks and greater fluxes between the carbon stores than monocultures. The results highlight the benefits of mixed-species forests for forest restoration initiatives that aim at mitigating climate change through carbon sequestration.
New Data From the World’s Longest-Running Experiment on Tropical Tree Diversity
Growing evidence suggests that tree diversity enhances ecosystem functions like carbon sequestration. However, previous studies struggled to isolate this effect from other factors or focused on young plantations, making it uncertain whether the findings applied to older forests. To address this, the researchers analysed data from the world’s longest-running tropical tree diversity experiment, located in Panama. The Sardinilla experiment, established in 2001 on a former pasture, comprises 22 plots with one, two, three or five native tree species, which have reached a comparatively advanced stage of stand development due to the rapid growth of trees in the tropics. The team examined data related to a range of different carbon stocks and fluxes ranging from carbon in aboveground tree biomass to carbon in leaf litter and in mineral soil.
Read more at University of Freiburg
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