Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/2067/43007
Title: Carbon stocks in central African forests enhanced by elephant disturbance
Authors: Berzaghi, Fabio
Longo, Marcos
Ciais, Philippe
Blake, Stephen
Bretagnolle, François
Vieira, Simone
Scaranello, Marcos
Scarascia Mugnozza, Giuseppe 
Doughty, Christopher E.
Journal: NATURE GEOSCIENCE 
Issue Date: 2019
Abstract: 
© 2019, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited. Large herbivores, such as elephants, can have important effects on ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles. Yet, the influence of elephants on the structure, productivity and carbon stocks in Africa’s rainforests remain largely unknown. Here, we quantify those effects by incorporating elephant disturbance in the Ecosystem Demography model, and verify the modelled effects by comparing them with forest inventory data from two lowland primary forests in Africa. We find that the reduction of forest stem density due to the presence of elephants leads to changes in the competition for light, water and space among trees. These changes favour the emergence of fewer and larger trees with higher wood density. Such a shift in African’s rainforest structure and species composition increases the long-term equilibrium of aboveground biomass. The shift also reduces the forest net primary productivity, given the trade-off between productivity and wood density. At a typical density of 0.5 to 1 animals per km2, elephant disturbances increase aboveground biomass by 26–60 t ha−1. Conversely, the extinction of forest elephants would result in a 7% decrease in the aboveground biomass in central African rainforests. These modelled results are confirmed by field inventory data. We speculate that the presence of forest elephants may have shaped the structure of Africa’s rainforests, which probably plays an important role in differentiating them from Amazonian rainforests.
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2067/43007
ISSN: 1752-0908
DOI: 10.1038/s41561-019-0395-6
Appears in Collections:A1. Articolo in rivista

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat Existing users please
berzaghi2019.pdf1.94 MBAdobe PDF    Request a copy
Show full item record

SCOPUSTM   
Citations 5

59
Last Week
0
Last month
1
checked on Mar 24, 2024

Page view(s)

78
Last Week
0
Last month
6
checked on Mar 27, 2024

Download(s)

5
checked on Mar 27, 2024

Google ScholarTM

Check

Altmetric


All documents in the "Unitus Open Access" community are published as open access.
All documents in the community "Prodotti della Ricerca" are restricted access unless otherwise indicated for specific documents