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Old-growth forest carbon sinks overestimated

Nature volume 591, pages E21–E23 (2021)Cite this article

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Matters Arising to this article was published on 24 March 2021

The Original Article was published on 11 September 2008

arising from: S. Luyssaert et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07276 (2008)

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Fig. 1: Changes in C fluxes as a function of age.

Data availability

The data analysed in this study and in Luyssaert et al. (2008) are publicly available at https://daac.ornl.gov/VEGETATION/guides/forest_carbon_flux.html (ref. 22). We used version 3.1 (12.06.2008).

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Acknowledgements

We thank all the contributors to the C flux database used here and in Luyssaert et al.1. This includes all site investigators, their funding agencies, the various regional flux networks (Afriflux, AmeriFlux, AsiaFlux, CarboAfrica, CarboEurope-IP, ChinaFlux, Fluxnet-Canada, KoFlux, LBA, NECC, OzFlux, TCOS-Siberia, USCCC), and the Fluxnet project, whose support was essential for obtaining the measurements compiled in the database. P.G. received funding from Aage V. Jensens Naturfond and T.N.-L. and L.V. received funding from ERA-GAS INVENT (NRC number 276398).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark

    Per Gundersen, Emil E. Thybring, Thomas Nord-Larsen, Lars Vesterdal & Vivian K. Johannsen

  2. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Knute J. Nadelhoffer

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  1. Per Gundersen
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Contributions

P.G. and E.E.T conceived the study. T.N-L., E.E.T. and P.G. analysed the data. P.G. wrote and edited the manuscript with contributions from all authors.

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Correspondence to Per Gundersen.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Tables

This file contains Supplementary Tables S1 to S3 and supplementary references 23−27. Supplementary Table S1 shows carbon flux estimates for the boreal and temperate forest area; Supplementary Table S2 shows estimates of nitrogen input rates needed to sustain the carbon build up in biomass, woody debris and soil organic matter; Supplementary Table S3 shows carbon sequestration in temperate and boreal forests with different management history.

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Gundersen, P., Thybring, E.E., Nord-Larsen, T. et al. Old-growth forest carbon sinks overestimated. Nature 591, E21–E23 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03266-z

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