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BG3.40 | Secondary Forest Dynamics, Regrowth Trajectories and carbon removal potential
EDI
Secondary Forest Dynamics, Regrowth Trajectories and carbon removal potential
Convener: Viola HeinrichECSECS | Co-conveners: Simon BesnardECSECS, Yidi XuECSECS, Celso H. L. Silva-JuniorECSECS, Cornelius Senf
Protection of old-growth forests is the priority for reducing land-use sector emissions and maintaining forest carbon sinks. In regions that have experienced deforestation and forest degradation, quantifying the post-disturbance and regrowth-related carbon fluxes is, also critical to gain a complete and accurate understanding of the forest carbon budget across scales and for different nature-based solutions and climate-smart land use efforts. Such work is crucial given current global climate pledges to reduce deforestation and degradation emissions and to enhance the natural carbon sink through protection and regrowth, the latter of which has been less well quantified across scales.
A growing field of research is improving our large-scale understanding of carbon fluxes following natural and human-induced disturbances such as deforestation and forest degradation. Post-disturbance forest dynamics are complex and can result in ongoing carbon losses, e.g., due to post-disturbance mortality, various land use trajectories, or carbon gains due to forest recovery on abandoned, deforested or degraded forest landscapes. Quantifying the different rates of change requires complementary approaches to understanding their spatial and temporal dynamics.
This session aims to address the role of forest recovery from disturbances in the terrestrial carbon cycle. By delving deeper into the dynamics of forest regrowth and recovery, we intend to explore the potential for carbon removal to contribute to the advancement of the field with scientific and policy implications. For example, contributing to the improvement of the MRV (Measurement, Reporting and Verification) systems of the jurisdictional systems of REDD+ (Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) as well regional to global carbon cycle assessments.
We welcome contributions from around the world, from different disciplines, employing approaches grounded in observational datasets, from state-of-the-art remote sensing techniques to on-the-ground fieldwork. We will explore forest regrowth dynamics at different scales – from local to global – and across varying time frames to gain a comprehensive, quantitative understanding of the role of secondary forests in the terrestrial carbon cycle.