01A-Old-growth forests as global原稿.doc

Old-growth forests as global carbon sinks Nature Vol 455| 11 September 2008| doi:10.1038/nature07276 Sebastiaan Luyssaert1,2, E. -Detlef Schulze3, Annett B?rner3, Alexander Knohl4, Dominik Hessenm?ller3, Beverly E. Law2, Philippe Ciais5 John Grace6 Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium College of Forestry, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331-5752, USA Max-Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, 07701 Jena, Germany ETH Zürich, Institute of Plant Sciences, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de lEnvironnement, IPSL-LSCE, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, 91191 Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France School of GeoSciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JN, UK Correspondence to: Sebastiaan Luyssaert1,2 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to S.L. (Email:?sebastiaan.luyssaert@ua.ac.be). Top of page Abstract Old-growth forests remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere1, 2 at rates that vary with climate and nitrogen deposition3. The sequestered carbon dioxide is stored in live woody tissues and slowly decomposing organic matter in litter and soil4. Old-growth forests therefore serve as a global carbon dioxide sink, but they are not protected by international treaties, because it is generally thought that ageing forests cease to accumulate carbon5, 6. Here we report a search of literature and databases for forest carbon-flux estimates. We find that in forests between 15 and 800 years of age, net ecosystem productivity (the net carbon balance of the forest including soils) is usually positive. Our results demonstrate that old-growth forests can continue to accumulate carbon, contrary to the long-standing view that they are carbon neutral. Over 30 per cent of the global forest area is unmanaged primary forest, and this area contains the remaining old-growth forests7. Half of the primary forests (6*?108 hectares) are located in the boreal and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. On