Assessing Carbon Storage Potential in the Mediterranean Forests: A Review of Morocco’s Ecosystems

Climate change poses a major global challenge, and forests are increasingly recognized for their role in carbon sequestration. This review employs a dual analytical framework, integrating a systematic bibliometric analysis with a structured thematic synthesis, to assess the carbon storage potential of Morocco’s forest ecosystems across both biomass and soil organic carbon pools. Forest types examined range from humid cedar and cork oak stands to semi-arid argan woodlands. The bibliometric analysis, based on 27 peer-reviewed studies retrieved from Scopus, reveals a growing but structurally imbalanced research landscape: approximately 70% of studies address soil carbon, while forest biomass investigations remain comparatively underrepresented. Keyword co-occurrence and collaboration networks further indicate fragmented research dynamics and limited integration of forestry-specific themes. The thematic synthesis provides a quantified overview of carbon stocks: soil organic carbon ranges from 40.1 to 264.7 t C ha⁻1, with the highest values in well-preserved cedar stands, while aboveground biomass carbon ranges from 4.91 t C ha⁻1 in young argan orchards to over 200 t C ha⁻1 in mature cedar forests. These findings reveal critical methodological and spatial gaps constraining national-scale carbon accounting: the absence of species-specific allometric equations for several dominant taxa, inconsistent soil depth treatment across studies, and limited coverage of semi-arid and degraded ecosystems reduce the reliability of current estimates. Strengthening biomass-focused research, expanding remote sensing and machine learning tools, and harmonizing assessment methodologies are identified as priority actions for improving Morocco’s forest carbon reporting under international climate frameworks. This work provides the first national synthesis combining bibliometric and thematic assessment of biomass and soil carbon stocks in Moroccan forest ecosystems. Cite this article as: Naciri, Y., Mderssa, M. E., Ettaqy, A., Abbas, Y., Ibijbijen, J., & Boulli, A. (2026). Assessing carbon storage potential in the Mediterranean forests: a review of Morocco’s ecosystems. Forestist, 76, 0078, doi:10.5152/forestist.2026.25078.