This data package contains data from: Data from High aboveground carbon stock of African tropical montane forests
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Aida Cuni-Sanchez, Martin J. P. Sullivan, Phil J. Platts, Simon L. Lewis, Rob Marchant, Gérard Imani, Wannes Hubau, Iveren Abiem, Hari Adhikari, Tomas Albrecht, Janne Altman, Christian Amani, Abreham B. Aneseyee, Valerio Avitabile, Lindsay Banin, Rodrigue Batumike, Marijn Bauters,Hans Beeckman, Serge K. Begne, Amy C. Bennett, Robert Bitariho, Pascal Boeckx, Jan Bogaert, Achim Bräuning, Franklin Bulonvu, Neil D. Burgess, Kim Calders, Colin Chapman, Hazel Chapman, James Comiskey, Thales de Haulleville, Mathieu Decuyper, Ben DeVries, Jiri Dolezal, Vincent Droissart, Corneille Ewango, Senbeta Feyera, Aster Gebrekristos, Roy Gereau, Martin Gilpin, Dismas Hakizimana, Jefferson Hall, Alan Hamilton, Olivier Hardy, Terese Hart, Janne Heiskanen,, Andreas Hemp, Martin Herold, Ulrike Hiltner,, David Horak, Marie-Noel Kamdem, Charles Kayijamahe, David Kenfack, Mwangi J. Kinyanjui, Julia Klein, Janvier Lisingo, Jon Lovett, Mark Lung, Jean-Remy Makana, Yadvinder Malhi, Andrew Marshall ,,, Emanuel H. Martin, Edward T.A. Mitchard, Alexandra Morel, John T. Mukendi, Tom Muller, Felix Nchu, Brigitte Nyirambangutse,, Joseph Okello,,, Kelvin S.-H. Peh,, Petri Pellikka,, Oliver L. Phillips, Andrew Plumptre, Lan Qie, Francesco Rovero,, Moses N. Sainge, Christine B. Schmitt,, Ondrej Sedlacek, Alain S.K. Ngute,, Douglas Sheil, Demisse Sheleme, Tibebu Y. Simegn, Murielle Simo-Droissart, Bonaventure Sonké, Teshome Soromessa, Terry Sunderland,, Miroslav Svoboda, Hermann Taedoumg,, James Taplin, David Taylor, Sean C. Thomas, Jonathan Timberlake, Darlington Tuagben, Peter Umunay, Eustrate Uzabaho, Hans Verbeeck, Jason Vleminckx, Göran Wallin, Charlotte Wheeler, Simon Willcock,, John T. Woods, Etienne Zibera.
Data from High aboveground carbon stock of African tropical montane forests. 2021
ForestPlots.NET DOI: 10.5521/forestplots.net/2021_5
Abstract
Variation in aboveground live tree biomass carbon (AGC) stocks is poorly understood in tropical montane forests, especially in African nations where montane forests often represent most of the extant evergreen old-growth forest cover. Although data are few, since primary productivity is temperature-mediated and cloud immersion, wind and steep slopes constrain tree height, AGC is widely assumed to be lower in tropical montane than lowland forests. To test this, we assembled and analysed a new dataset of structurally intact old-growth forests (“AfriMont”) spanning 44 montane sites in 12 African countries, and compared findings with old-growth lowland forests in the African Tropical Rainforest Observation Network (AfriTRON). We find that montane sites in the AfriMont plot network have a mean AGC-stock of 149.4 Mg C ha-1 (95% CI 137.1-164.2), comparable to lowland forests in the AfriTRON plot network and higher than averages from plot networks in montane and lowland forests in the Neotropics. Notably, our results are substantially higher than the IPCC default values for these forests in Africa (89.3 Mg C ha-1). The distinctive structure of African lowland forests (low stem density and high abundance of large trees) is mirrored in montane forests. This important carbon store is endangered, we find that 0.8 million ha of old-growth African montane forest have been lost since 2001. Our findings highlight the urgent need for conserving these biodiverse and carbon-rich ecosystems. We provide country-specific montane forest AGC estimates modelled from our plot network to help guide forest conservation and reforestation interventions.
