The paper, entitled "Rate of tree carbon accumulation increases continuously with tree size" by a group of researchers including several CTFS
scientists has inspired news reports from Nature, Archangel Ancient Tree Archives, csi-fm.org, foresteurope.org, Science Daily and The Conversation, just to name a few. The article has even been mentioned on numerous scientific blogs and discussion boards. It was posted online on January 15, 2014, and has already sparked a lot of discussion about forest management, and the future of the world's forests. The original paper highlights that, contrary to popular belief, tree growth does not slow down with age. In fact, the growth of a tree often speeds up with maturity.
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| Both Tropical and Temperate trees showed no signs of slowing growth |
According to Sci-News.com “Rather than slowing down or ceasing growth and carbon uptake, as we previously assumed, most of the oldest trees in forests around the world actually grow faster, taking up more carbon. A large tree may put on weight equivalent to an entire small tree in a year,” said co-author Dr Richard Condit from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
Authors of
the original report include: N. L. Stephenson, A. J.Das, R. Condit S. E. Russo,
P. J. Baker, N. G. Beckman, D. A. Coomes, E. R. Lines, W. K. Morris,N. Ruger,
E. A´ lvarez, C. Blundo, S. Bunyavejchewin, G. Chuyong, S. J. Davies, A´ .
Duque, C. N. Ewango, O. Flores, J. F. Franklin, H. R. Grau, Z.Hao, M. E.
Harmon, S. P. Hubbell, D. Kenfack, Y. Lin, J.-R. Makana, A. Malizia, L. R.
Malizia, R. J. Pabst, N. Pongpattananurak, S.-H. Su, I-F. Sun, S. Tan, D.
Thomas, P. J. van Mantgem, X.Wang, S. K.Wiser & M. A. Zavala
The original PDF can be found here.
The original PDF can be found here.