Central Africa's mesic savannas should be conserved, not afforested-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

Central Africa's mesic savannas should be conserved, not afforested

Published:2024-06 Issue:6 Volume:30 Page:
ISSN:1354-1013
Container-title:Global Change Biology
language:en
Short-container-title:Global Change Biology

Author:

Loft Ty¹²^ORCID,Cardoso Anabelle³⁴,Bond William J.⁴,Gonçalves Francisco M. P.⁵⁶⁷,Machado Manoela¹⁸,Oliveras Menor Imma¹²,Staver Carla⁹¹⁰,Stevens Nicola¹¹¹

Affiliation:

1. Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment University of Oxford Oxford UK

2. AMAP (Botanique et Modélisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des Végétations), CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, IRD Université de Montpellier Montpellier France

3. Department of Geography University at Buffalo Buffalo New York USA

4. Department of Biological Sciences University of Cape Town Cape Town South Africa

5. Herbário do Lubango ISCED‐Huíla Lubango Angola

6. Universidade Mandume Ya Ndemufayo Lubango Angola

7. Universidade de Lisboa Centro de Ecologia Evolucao e Alteracoes Ambientais Lisbon Portugal

8. Woodwell Climate Research Center Falmouth Massachusetts USA

9. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Yale University New Haven Connecticut USA

10. Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies Yale University New Haven Connecticut USA

11. Center for African Ecology, School of Animal Plant and Environmental Sciences University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg South Africa

Abstract

Recent work has suggested fire suppression can be used to “restore” Central African savannas, increasing their biodiversity and capacity to sequester carbon. Here, we rebut this proposal, by showing that Central Africa's savannas are ancient, biodiverse, and fire‐dependent ecosystems. Suppressing fire within them would permanently harm these savanna's biodiversity and degrade their functionality, likely without storing much carbon long term.

Publisher

Wiley

Link

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/gcb.17369

Reference11 articles.

1. Floristic evidence for alternative biome states in tropical Africa

2. Resilience and restoration of tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and grassy woodlands

3. Protecting an artificial savanna as a nature‐based solution to restore carbon and biodiversity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo