Loss of tropical moist broadleaf forest has turned Africa’s forests from a carbon sink into a source

Africa’s forests and woody savannas have historically acted as a carbon sink, removing atmospheric carbon and storing it as biomass. However, our novel analysis reveals a critical transition from a carbon sink to a carbon source between 2010 and 2017. Using new high-resolution satellite-derived biomass maps, validated with field plots and machine learning techniques, we quantified the aboveground biomass stocks across African biomes over a decade. Between 2007 and 2010, the continent gained 439 ± 66 Tg yr⁻1 of aboveground biomass, but from 2010 to 2015 biomass declined by − 132 ± 20 Tg yr-1 and from 2015 to 2017 this decline continued with a loss of − 41 ± 6 Tg yr-1, primarily driven by deforestation in tropical moist broadleaf forests. Gains in savanna biomass partially offset these losses, likely due to shrub encroachment. Our findings underline the urgent need for implementing policies to halt global deforestation as required by the Glasgow Leaders Declaration to close the global emissions gap. The current ongoing revisions of Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement need to be even more ambitious to compensate for the ongoing loss of natural carbon sinks.

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Publication Details

Journal
Scientific Reports
Published
2025-11-28
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-27462-3
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
1.11

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article

Loss of tropical moist broadleaf forest has turned Africa’s forests from a carbon sink into a source

Janne Heiskanen, Arnan Araza, Nezha Acil, S. Quegan et al.
1 citations
Scientific Reports
Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
1.11
article

Loss of tropical moist broadleaf forest has turned Africa’s forests from a carbon sink into a source

Janne Heiskanen, Arnan Araza, Nezha Acil, S. Quegan, Hari Adhikari, Heiko Balzter, Oliver Cartus, João M. B. Carreiras, Petri Pellikka, Chukwuebuka Nwobi, Mathew Williams, Thom Brade, Martin Herold, Narumasa Tsutsumida, Pedro Rodríguez‐Veiga, Casey M. Ryan, T. Luke Smallman
article en
1 citations

Abstract

Africa’s forests and woody savannas have historically acted as a carbon sink, removing atmospheric carbon and storing it as biomass. However, our novel analysis reveals a critical transition from a carbon sink to a carbon source between 2010 and 2017. Using new high-resolution satellite-derived biomass maps, validated with field plots and machine learning techniques, we quantified the aboveground biomass stocks across African biomes over a decade. Between 2007 and 2010, the continent gained 439 ± 66 Tg yr⁻1 of aboveground biomass, but from 2010 to 2015 biomass declined by − 132 ± 20 Tg yr-1 and from 2015 to 2017 this decline continued with a loss of − 41 ± 6 Tg yr-1, primarily driven by deforestation in tropical moist broadleaf forests. Gains in savanna biomass partially offset these losses, likely due to shrub encroachment. Our findings underline the urgent need for implementing policies to halt global deforestation as required by the Glasgow Leaders Declaration to close the global emissions gap. The current ongoing revisions of Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement need to be even more ambitious to compensate for the ongoing loss of natural carbon sinks.

Scientific ReportsVol. 15(1)
Finnish Meteorological Institute (FI), University of Helsinki (FI), University of Leicester (GB), Government of Nepal (NP), Wuhan University (CN), State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying Mapping and Remote Sensing (CN), National Centre for Earth Observation (GB), GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences (DE), Gamma Remote Sensing (Switzerland) (CH), Namibia Institute of Pathology (NA), University of Technology, Mauritius (MU), Saitama University (JP), University of Sheffield (GB), Wageningen University & Research (NL), University of Edinburgh (GB)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Helsingin Yliopisto, European Space Agency, Ulkoministeriö, U.S. Geological Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, National Centre for Earth Observation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Openalex Percentile: Top 17%
Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
1.11
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