Global covariation of forest age transitions with the net carbon balance

Besnard, Simon; Heinrich, Viola; Carvalhais, Nuno; Ciais, Philippe; Herold, Martin; Luijkx, Ingrid; Peters, Wouter; Requena Suarez, Daniela; Santoro, Maurizio; Yang, Hui

doi:10.1038/s41559-025-02821-5

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT

Add to Basket

Local TagsRelease HistoryDetailsSummary

Released

Journal Article

Global covariation of forest age transitions with the net carbon balance

Authors

/persons/resource/besnard

Besnard, Simon
1.4 Remote Sensing, 1.0 Geodesy, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;
Submitting Corresponding Author, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

/persons/resource/violah

Heinrich, Viola
1.4 Remote Sensing, 1.0 Geodesy, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

Carvalhais, Nuno
External Organizations;

Ciais, Philippe
External Organizations;

/persons/resource/herold

Herold, Martin
1.4 Remote Sensing, 1.0 Geodesy, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

Luijkx, Ingrid
External Organizations;

Peters, Wouter
External Organizations;

/persons/resource/daniela

Requena Suarez, Daniela
1.4 Remote Sensing, 1.0 Geodesy, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

Santoro, Maurizio
External Organizations;

Yang, Hui
External Organizations;

External Ressource

No external resources are shared

Fulltext (public)

There are no public fulltexts stored in GFZpublic

Supplementary Material (public)

There is no public supplementary material available

Citation

Besnard, S., Heinrich, V., Carvalhais, N., Ciais, P., Herold, M., Luijkx, I., Peters, W., Requena Suarez, D., Santoro, M., Yang, H. (2025 online): Global covariation of forest age transitions with the net carbon balance. - Nature Ecology and Evolution.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02821-5

Cite as: https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5036019

Abstract

Forest age transitions are critical in shaping the global carbon balance, yet their influence on carbon stocks and fluxes remains poorly quantified. Here we analyse global forest age dynamics from 2010 to 2020 using the Global Age Mapping Integration v2.0 dataset, alongside satellite-derived aboveground carbon (AGC) and atmospheric inversion-derived net CO2 flux data. We reveal widespread declines in forest age across the Amazon, Congo Basin, Southeast Asia and parts of Siberia, primarily driven by stand-replacing disturbances such as fire and harvest, leading to the replacement of older forests by younger stands. Meanwhile, forests in China, Europe and North America experienced net ageing. Globally, stand replacement resulted in substantial AGC losses, with old forests (>200 years, ~98.0 MgC ha−1) transitioning to younger, carbon-poor stands (<20 years, ~43.5 MgC ha−1), leading to a net AGC loss of ~0.14 PgC per year. Despite this, regions with high rates of young stands replacing old forests exhibited a temporary strengthening of the carbon sink, driven by the rapid regrowth of these young stands. Crucially, these young forests do not compensate for the long-term carbon storage of old forests. Our findings underscore the importance of protecting old forests while optimizing forest management strategies to maximize carbon gains and enhance climate mitigation.