Amazonian and African *intact* forests are absorbing less carbon, than they sued to, thus contributing less to mitigate #ClimateChange Here goes a few thoughts on the new paper @nature
nature.com/articles/s4158…
nature.com/articles/s4158…
@nature First and foremost, it is commendable the vast amount of data used in this paper. Data that was sampled in extreme #fieldwork conditions by dozens of people. Without these,such robust analyses would never be possible. It takes a lot of time, different grants and plenty dedication
@nature Second, long-term data curation was vital to make this paper possible. @ForestPlots is an example of how to store long-term data and on how to do multiple checks on data quality.
@nature @ForestPlots Now, onto the message - although the capacity of forests to sequester CO2 is decreasing, they're still a crucial stronghold of carbon storage. In a single hectare in the Amazon, there is about 300Mg C. Imagine chopping the 5.5M ha of the Amazon down. It'd release a LOT of #CO2
Finally, it is essential to note that the paper focus on intact #forests With large parts of the Amazon being disturbed by human activities, we currently don't know whether the ability of these disturbed forests to absorb carbon has also decreased.
Do read the paper - it is g8!
Do read the paper - it is g8!
This piece in @ConversationEDU highlights many of the points above and bring color to the whole lotta work that happens behind the scenes: theconversation.com/we-tracked-300…
