| 英文摘要: | Glob. Change Biol. http://doi.org/s6x (2014)
It is clear that deforestation leads to the release of carbon stored in tropical forests and a great deal of work has been done to estimate how much carbon is emitted as a result. The carbon implications of forest degradation from human disturbances, such as selective logging, understorey fires and forest fragmentation, remain less well quantified.
Erika Berenguer from Lancaster University, UK, and co-workers undertook the largest field study of its kind so far to begin to address this knowledge gap. They were particularly interested in understanding the combined effects of different forms of forest disturbance on the major carbon pools (aboveground, dead wood, litter and soil carbon) in tropical forests.
They found that live vegetation — the largest pool — was the most sensitive to disturbance, with affected areas containing on average 40% less aboveground carbon than undisturbed forests. Conversely soil stocks seemed to be resistant to disturbance, and the dead wood and litter carbon pools displayed rapid recovery potential. Extrapolating their findings using records of the annual forest disturbance area in the Brazilian Amazon indicates that the carbon loss from forest degradation could release 40% more carbon than deforestation alone. |