Long-term carbon sink in Borneo's forests halted by drought and vulnerable to edge effects

Qie, L and Lewis, SL and Sullivan, MJP and Lopez-Gonzalez, G and Pickavance, GC and Sunderland, T and Ashton, P and Hubau, W and Abu Salim, K and Aiba, SI and Banin, LF and Berry, N and Brearley, FQ and Burslem, DFRP and Dančák, M and Davies, SJ and Fredriksson, G and Hamer, KC and Hédl, R and Kho, LK and Kitayama, K and Krisnawati, H and Lhota, S and Malhi, Y and Maycock, C and Metali, F and Mirmanto, E and Nagy, L and Nilus, R and Ong, R and Pendry, CA and Poulsen, AD and Primack, RB and Rutishauser, E and Samsoedin, I and Saragih, B and Sist, P and Slik, JWF and Sukri, RS and Svátek, M and Tan, S and Tjoa, A and Van Nieuwstadt, M and Vernimmen, RRE and Yassir, I and Kidd, PS and Fitriadi, M and Ideris, NKH and Serudin, RM and Abdullah Lim, LS and Saparudin, MS and Phillips, OL (2017) Long-term carbon sink in Borneo's forests halted by drought and vulnerable to edge effects. Nature Communications, 8 (1). ISSN 2041-1723

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Abstract

© 2017 The Author(s). Less than half of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions remain in the atmosphere. While carbon balance models imply large carbon uptake in tropical forests, direct on-the-ground observations are still lacking in Southeast Asia. Here, using long-term plot monitoring records of up to half a century, we find that intact forests in Borneo gained 0.43 Mg C ha -1 per year (95% CI 0.14-0.72, mean period 1988-2010) above-ground live biomass. These results closely match those from African and Amazonian plot networks, suggesting that the world's remaining intact tropical forests are now en masse out-of-equilibrium. Although both pan-tropical and long-term, the sink in remaining intact forests appears vulnerable to climate and land use changes. Across Borneo the 1997-1998 El Niño drought temporarily halted the carbon sink by increasing tree mortality, while fragmentation persistently offset the sink and turned many edge-affected forests into a carbon source to the atmosphere.