Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Old-growth forests as global carbon sinks

Matters Arising to this article was published on 24 March 2021

Abstract

Old-growth forests remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere1,2 at rates that vary with climate and nitrogen deposition3. The sequestered carbon dioxide is stored in live woody tissues and slowly decomposing organic matter in litter and soil4. Old-growth forests therefore serve as a global carbon dioxide sink, but they are not protected by international treaties, because it is generally thought that ageing forests cease to accumulate carbon5,6. Here we report a search of literature and databases for forest carbon-flux estimates. We find that in forests between 15 and 800 years of age, net ecosystem productivity (the net carbon balance of the forest including soils) is usually positive. Our results demonstrate that old-growth forests can continue to accumulate carbon, contrary to the long-standing view that they are carbon neutral. Over 30 per cent of the global forest area is unmanaged primary forest, and this area contains the remaining old-growth forests7. Half of the primary forests (6 × 108 hectares) are located in the boreal and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. On the basis of our analysis, these forests alone sequester about 1.3 ± 0.5 gigatonnes of carbon per year. Thus, our findings suggest that 15 per cent of the global forest area, which is currently not considered when offsetting increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, provides at least 10 per cent of the global net ecosystem productivity8. Old-growth forests accumulate carbon for centuries and contain large quantities of it. We expect, however, that much of this carbon, even soil carbon9, will move back to the atmosphere if these forests are disturbed.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Changes in carbon fluxes as a function of age.
Figure 2: Biomass accumulation as a function of stand density.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Carey, E. V., Sala, A., Keane, R. & Callaway, R. M. Are old forests underestimated as global carbon sinks? Glob. Change Biol. 7, 339–344 (2001)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Pregitzer, K. S. & Euskirchen, E. S. Carbon cycling and storage in world forests: biome patterns related to forest age. Glob. Change Biol. 10, 2052–2077 (2004)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Magnani, F. et al. The human footprint in the carbon cycle of temperate and boreal forests. Nature 447, 848–850 (2007)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Zhou, G. Y. et al. Old-growth forests can accumulate carbon in soils. Science 314, 1417 (2006)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Kira, T. & Sihdei, T. Primary production and turnover of organic matter in different forest ecosystems of the western pacific. Jpn. J. Ecol. 17, 70–87 (1967)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Odum, E. P. The strategy of ecosystem development. Science 164, 262–270 (1969)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. FAO. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005. Progress towards sustainable forest management. Forestry Paper 147 (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2006)

  8. Bolin, B. et al. in IPCC, Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry. A Special Report of the IPCC (eds Watson, R. T. et al.) 23–51 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2000)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Fontaine, S. et al. Stability of organic carbon in deep soil layers controlled by fresh carbon supply. Nature 450, 277–280 (2007)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Acker, S. A., Halpern, C. B., Harmon, M. E. & Dyrness, C. T. Trends in bole biomass accumulation, net primary production and tree mortality in Pseudotsuga menziesii forests of contrasting age. Tree Physiol. 22, 213–217 (2002)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Knohl, A., Schulze, E. D., Kolle, O. & Buchmann, N. Large carbon uptake by an unmanaged 250-year-old deciduous forest in Central Germany. Agric. For. Meteorol. 118, 151–167 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Law, B. E. et al. Changes in carbon storage and fluxes in a chronosequence of ponderosa pine. Glob. Change Biol. 9, 510–524 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Desai, A. R. et al. Comparing net ecosystem exchange of carbon dioxide between an old-growth and mature forest in the upper Midwest, USA. Agric. For. Meteorol. 128, 33–55 (2005)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Gower, S. T., McMurtrie, R. E. & Murty, D. Aboveground net primary production decline with stand age: Potential causes. Trends Ecol. Evol. 11, 378–382 (1996)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Binkley, D. et al. Age-related decline in forest ecosystem growth: an individual-tree, stand-structure hypothesis. Ecosystems 5, 58–67 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Van Tuyl, S., Law, B. E., Turner, D. P. & Gitelman, A. I. Variability in net primary production and carbon storage in biomass across Oregon forests—an assessment integrating data from forest inventories, intensive sites, and remote sensing. For. Ecol. Manage. 209, 273–291 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Harmon, M. E., Ferrell, W. K. & Franklin, J. F. Effects on carbon storage of conversion of old-growth forests to young forests. Science 247, 699–702 (1990)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Janish, J. E. & Harmon, M. E. Successional changes in live and dead wood carbon stores: implications for net ecosystem productivity. Tree Physiol. 22, 77–89 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Wirth, C., Czimczik, C. I. & Schulze, E. D. Beyond annual budgets: carbon flux at different temporal scales in fire-prone Siberian Scots pine forests. Tellus 54, 611–630 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Knohl, A. et al. Carbon dioxide exchange of a Russian boreal forest after disturbance by wind throw. Glob. Change Biol. 8, 231–246 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Kowalski, A. S. et al. Paired comparisons of carbon exchange between undisturbed and regenerating stands in four managed forests in Europe. Glob. Change Biol. 10, 1707–1723 (2004)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Irvine, J., Law, B. E. & Hibbard, K. A. Postfire carbon pools and fluxes in semiarid ponderosa pine in Central Oregon. Glob. Change Biol. 13, 1748–1760 (2007)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Yoda, K., Kira, T., Ogawa, H. & Hozumi, K. Self-thinning in overcrowded pure stands under cultivated and natural conditions. J. Biol. Osaka City Univ. 14, 107–132 (1963)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Mladenoff, D. J., White, M. A., Pastor, J. & Crow, T. R. Comparing spatial pattern in unaltered old-growth and disturbed forest landscapes. Ecol. Appl. 3, 294–306 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Chapin, F. S. et al. Reconciling carbon-cycle concepts, terminology and methodology. Ecosystems 9, 1041–1050 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Ciais, P. et al. in The Carbon Balance of Forest Biomes (eds Griffith, H. & Jarvis, P.) 109–150 (Taylor and Francis, 2005)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Jomura, M. et al. The carbon budget of coarse woody debris in a temperate broad-leaved secondary forest in Japan. Tellus B 59, 211–222 (2007)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  28. Preston, C. M. & Schmidt, M. W. I. Black (pyrogenic) carbon: a synthesis of current knowledge and uncertainties with special consideration of boreal regions. Biogeosciences 3, 397–420 (2006)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  29. Luyssaert, S. et al. CO2-balance of boreal, temperate and tropical forest derived from a global database. Glob. Change Biol. 13, 2509–2537 (2007)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank all site investigators, their funding agencies and the various regional flux networks (Afriflux, AmeriFlux, AsiaFlux, CarboAfrica, CarboEuropeIP, ChinaFlux, Fluxnet-Canada, KoFlux, LBA, NECC, OzFlux, TCOS-Siberia and USCCC), and the Fluxnet project, whose support was essential for obtaining our measurements. S.L. was supported by CoE ECO UA-Methusalem and the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen) with a post-doctoral fellowship and a research grant. A.K. was supported by the European Union with a Marie Curie fellowship, and B.E.L. was supported by the regional North American Carbon Program project ORCA (US Department of Energy, Terrestrial Carbon Program, award number DE-FG02-04ER63917). E.-D.S. was supported by DFG-Exploratories. Additional funding for this study was received from CarboEuropeIP (project number GOCE-CT-2003-505572) and Ameriflux.

Author Contributions S.L., B.E.L., A.K. and P.C. compiled the data set. S.L., A.B. and D.H wrote code and analysed the data. S.L., E.-D.S., A.K., B.E.L., P.C. and J.G. designed the analyses and wrote the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sebastiaan Luyssaert.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Methods, Supplementary References and Supplementary Figures S1-S5 (PDF 442 kb)

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Luyssaert, S., Schulze, ED., Börner, A. et al. Old-growth forests as global carbon sinks. Nature 455, 213–215 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07276

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07276

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing