2023年3月15日出版的《自然》杂志发表了英国布里斯托尔大学Heinrich, Viola H. A.团队的最新研究成果，他们报道了次生和退化的潮湿热带森林的碳汇。

研究人员量化了正在恢复的森林的地面碳汇(AGC)，涵盖三个主要连续热带湿润地区(亚马逊、婆罗洲和中非)。在卫星数据产品的基础上，分析涵盖了受关键环境和人为驱动因素影响的退化森林和次生林生长的异质性时空模式。在恢复的前20年，婆罗洲的再生长率分别比中非和亚马逊高出45%和58%。这是由于温度、水分亏缺和扰动等变量造成的。

研究小组发现再生退化和次生林在1984年至2018年间累积了107TgC year^-1 (90-130TgC year^-1)，抵消了同期潮湿热带森林损失的26%(21-34%)的碳排放。因此，保护原始森林是当务之急。此外，该研究团队估计，在所研究的主要热带地区保护恢复退化和次生林的未来碳汇潜力可达53TgC year^-1(44-62TgC year^-1)。

据了解，由于气候变化、森林砍伐以及火灾和伐木造成的退化，原始热带湿润森林的全球重要碳汇正在减少。正在恢复的热带次生林和退化林现在覆盖了大约热带森林面积的10%，但它们积累了多少碳仍然不确定。

附：英文原文

Title: The carbon sink of secondary and degraded humid tropical forests

Author: Heinrich, Viola H. A., Vancutsem, Christelle, Dalagnol, Ricardo, Rosan, Thais M., Fawcett, Dominic, Silva-Junior, Celso H. L., Cassol, Henrique L. G., Achard, Frdric, Jucker, Tommaso, Silva, Carlos A., House, Jo, Sitch, Stephen, Hales, Tristram C., Arago, Luiz E. O. C.

Issue&Volume: 2023-03-15

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 logging. 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 (AGC) sink of recovering forests across three main continuous tropical humid regions: the Amazon, Borneo and Central Africa. On the basis of satellite data products, our analysis encompasses the heterogeneous spatial and temporal patterns of growth in degraded and secondary forests, influenced by key environmental and anthropogenic drivers. In the first 20years 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 107TgC year^-1 (90–130TgC year^-1) between 1984 and 2018, counterbalancing 26% (21–34%) of carbon emissions from humid tropical forest loss during the same period. Protecting old-growth forests is therefore a priority. Furthermore, we estimate that conserving recovering degraded and secondary forests can have a feasible future carbon sink potential of 53TgC year^-1 (44–62TgC year^-1) across the main tropical regions studied.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05679-w

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05679-w