With accelerating environmental change, understanding forest disturbance impacts on trade-offs between biodiversity and carbon dynamics is of high socio-economic importance. Most studies, however, have assessed immediate or short-term effects of disturbance, while long-term impacts remain poorly understood. Using a tree-ring-based approach, we analysed the effect of 250 years of disturbances on present-day biodiversity indicators and carbon dynamics in primary forests. Disturbance legacies spanning centuries shaped contemporary forest co-benefits and trade-offs, with contrasting, local-scale effects. Disturbances enhanced carbon sequestration, reaching maximum rates within a comparatively narrow post-disturbance window (up to 50 years). Concurrently, disturbance diminished aboveground carbon storage, which gradually returned to peak levels over centuries. Temporal patterns in biodiversity potential were bimodal; the first maximum coincided with the short-term post-disturbance carbon sequestration peak, and the second occurred during periods of maximum carbon storage in complex old-growth forest. Despite fluctuating local-scale trade-offs, forest biodiversity and carbon storage remained stable across the broader study region, and our data support a positive relationship between carbon stocks and biodiversity potential. These findings underscore the interdependencies of forest processes, and highlight the necessity of large-scale conservation programmes to effectively promote both biodiversity and long-term carbon storage, particularly given the accelerating global biodiversity and climate crises.
Natural disturbance impacts on trade-offs and co-benefits of forest biodiversity and carbon / Mikolas M.; Svitok M.; Bace R.; Meigs G.W.; Keeton W.S.; Keith H.; Buechling A.; Trotsiuk V.; Kozak D.; Bollmann K.; Begovic K.; Cada V.; Chaskovskyy O.; Ralhan D.; Dusatko M.; Ferencik M.; Frankovic M.; Gloor R.; Hofmeister J.; Janda P.; Kameniar O.; Labusova J.; Majdanova L.; Nagel T.A.; Pavlin J.; Pettit J.L.; Rodrigo R.; Roibu C.-C.; Rydval M.; Sabatini F.M.; Schurman J.; Synek M.; Vostarek O.; Zemlerova V.; Svoboda M.. - In: PROCEEDINGS - ROYAL SOCIETY. BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES. - ISSN 0962-8452. - ELETTRONICO. - 288:1961(2021), pp. 20211631.1-20211631.9. [10.1098/rspb.2021.1631]
Natural disturbance impacts on trade-offs and co-benefits of forest biodiversity and carbon
Sabatini F. M.;
2021
Abstract
With accelerating environmental change, understanding forest disturbance impacts on trade-offs between biodiversity and carbon dynamics is of high socio-economic importance. Most studies, however, have assessed immediate or short-term effects of disturbance, while long-term impacts remain poorly understood. Using a tree-ring-based approach, we analysed the effect of 250 years of disturbances on present-day biodiversity indicators and carbon dynamics in primary forests. Disturbance legacies spanning centuries shaped contemporary forest co-benefits and trade-offs, with contrasting, local-scale effects. Disturbances enhanced carbon sequestration, reaching maximum rates within a comparatively narrow post-disturbance window (up to 50 years). Concurrently, disturbance diminished aboveground carbon storage, which gradually returned to peak levels over centuries. Temporal patterns in biodiversity potential were bimodal; the first maximum coincided with the short-term post-disturbance carbon sequestration peak, and the second occurred during periods of maximum carbon storage in complex old-growth forest. Despite fluctuating local-scale trade-offs, forest biodiversity and carbon storage remained stable across the broader study region, and our data support a positive relationship between carbon stocks and biodiversity potential. These findings underscore the interdependencies of forest processes, and highlight the necessity of large-scale conservation programmes to effectively promote both biodiversity and long-term carbon storage, particularly given the accelerating global biodiversity and climate crises.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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