Degradation in carbon stocks near tropical forest edges

作者：Chaplin Kramer Rebecca^*; Ramler Ivan; Sharp Richard; Haddad Nick M; Gerber James S; West Paul C; Mandle Lisa; Engstrom Peder; Baccini Alessandro; Sim Sarah; Mueller Carina; King Henry

来源：Nature Communications, 2015, 6(1): 10158.

DOI：10.1038/ncomms10158

Carbon stock estimates based on land cover type are critical for informing climate change assessment and landscape management, but field and theoretical evidence indicates that forest fragmentation reduces the amount of carbon stored at forest edges. Here, using remotely sensed pantropical biomass and land cover data sets, we estimate that biomass within the first 500 m of the forest edge is on average 25% lower than in forest interiors and that reductions of 10% extend to 1.5 km from the forest edge. These findings suggest that IPCC Tier 1 methods overestimate carbon stocks in tropical forests by nearly 10%. Proper accounting for degradation at forest edges will inform better landscape and forest management and policies, as well as the assessment of carbon stocks at landscape and national levels.

• 出版日期2015-12