Forest degradation contributes more to carbon loss than forest cover loss in North American boreal forests

• Published in: International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation
• Main Authors: Ling Yu, Lei Fan, Philippe Ciais, Jingfeng Xiao, Frédéric Frappart, Stephen Sitch, Jingming Chen, Xiangming Xiao, Rasmus Fensholt, Zhongbing Chang, Hongqian Fang, Xiaojun Li, Tiangxiang Cui, Mingguo Ma, Jean-Pierre Wigneron
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2024
• Subjects: Canadian boreal forests; Carbon balance; Remote sensing; Forest degradation; Physical geography; GB3-5030; Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Global warming
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2024.103729; https://doaj.org/article/2527515da4ba416c83127496a2a12197

The carbon sinks of North American boreal forests have been threatened by global warming and forest disturbances in recent decades, but knowledge about the carbon balance of these forests in recent years remains unknown. We tracked annual aboveground carbon (AGC) changes from 2016 to 2021 across the forest regions of NASA’s Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) core study domain, using Vegetation Optical Depth derived from low-frequency passive microwave observations. The results showed that these forests showed a net AGC increase of + 28.49 Tg C/yr during the study period, with total AGC gains of + 219.34 Tg C/yr counteracting total AGC losses of −190.86 Tg C/yr. Forest degradation (-162.21 Tg C/yr), defined as a reduction in the capacity of forest to provide goods and services, contributes 5 times more to the total AGC loss than forest cover loss (-28.65 Tg C/yr), defined as the complete removal of tree cover. This indicates that degradation has dominated AGC loss in the region.