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.

Biogeochemistry

Signs of saturation in the tropical carbon sink

Nature volume 519, pages 295–296 (2015)Cite this article

Subjects

The carbon sink in the land biosphere has grown during the past 30 years, taking up much of the carbon dioxide produced by human activities. The first signs of this growth levelling off have been spotted in Amazon forests. See Letter p.344

Intact tropical forests offer a world-class ecosystem service: they absorb and store large amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide that is emitted to the atmosphere by human activities. The amount of new carbon stored each year in these forests — in the form of growing tree stems, new leaves and roots, and increased soil organic matter — is equivalent to roughly half of all the carbon scrubbed from the atmosphere by the land biosphere1,2. But will these tropical forests continue to accumulate carbon unabated in the future? In this issue, Brienen and co-authors3 (page 344) report the first evidence that the carbon sink in intact tropical forests may be becoming saturated. Their result is based on a remarkable 30-year study of around 189,000 trees from 321 forest plots distributed across the Amazon basin.

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

Learn more

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

Figure 1: Giants of the rainforest.

Notes

  1. See all news & views

References

  1. Ballantyne, A. P., Alden, C. B., Miller, J. B., Tans. P. P. & White, J. W. C. Nature 488, 70–72 (2012).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Pan, Y. et al. Science 333, 988–993 (2011).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Brienen, R. J. W. et al. Nature 519, 344–348 (2015).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Arrhenius, S. Phil. Mag. J. Sci. 41, 237–276 (1896).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Le Quéré, C. et al. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 5, 165–185 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Hungate, B. A., Dukes, J. S., Shaw, M. R., Luo, Y. & Field, C. B. Science 302, 1512–1513 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Gerber, S., Hedin, L. O., Keel, S. G., Pacala, S. W. & Shevliakova, E. Geophys. Res. Lett. 40, 5218–5222 (2013).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Fisher, J. I., Hurtt, G. C., Thomas, R. Q. & Chambers, J. Q. Ecol. Lett. 11, 554–563 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Gatti, L. V. et al. Nature 506, 76–80 (2014).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Clark, D. A., Clark, D. B. & Oberbauer, S. F. J. Geophys. Res. Biogeosci. 118, 783–794 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Lambers, H., Mougel, C., Jaillard, B. & Hinsinger, P. Plant Soil 321, 83–115 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Batterman, S. A. et al. Nature 502, 224–227 (2013).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lars O. Hedin is in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, USA.,

    Lars O. Hedin

Authors
  1. Lars O. Hedin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lars O. Hedin.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hedin, L. Signs of saturation in the tropical carbon sink. Nature 519, 295–296 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/519295a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/519295a

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced 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