近日，清华大学李伟团队揭示了小规模持续的潮湿森林砍伐导致热带森林生物量损失。这一研究成果发表在2026年1月7日出版的《自然》杂志上。

热带森林储存了全球森林地上碳（AGC）的一半左右，但大片地区受到干扰的影响，如农业扩张造成的森林砍伐和火灾、选择性伐木和边缘效应造成的退化。随着时间的推移，受干扰的森林可以恢复，逐渐恢复碳储量和生态功能。然而，恢复率如何随扰动大小、类型和位置而变化的量化仍然很差。

研究组使用具有空间显式植被恢复曲线的簿记方法来量化1990-2020年期间受干扰热带森林的AGC动态。研究发现，受干扰的热带干旱森林仍能保持碳中性，而受干扰的热带湿润森林则净损失了15.6 ± 3.7拍克碳的地上生物量碳，这种损失主要归因于持续存在的小规模森林砍伐。

尽管仅影响约5%的受干扰区域，但这些小规模（小于2 ha）由于持续的土地利用转换而没有森林再生，森林砍伐事件约占碳损失的56%。相比之下，火灾造成的大量碳损失被火灾后的长期恢复所抵消。随着时间的推移，森林砍伐扩大到碳储量密度更高的潮湿森林，加剧了单位面积的AGC损失。这些发现突显了小型开垦对热带碳损失的不成比例的影响，表明需要遏制土地利用的变化，保护年轻和正在恢复的森林。

附：英文原文

Title: Small persistent humid forest clearings drive tropical forest biomass losses

Author: Xu, Yidi, Ciais, Philippe, Santoro, Maurizio, Bourgoin, Clment, Ritter, Franois, Pellissier-Tanon, Agns, Feng, Yu, Zhou, Chuanlong, He, Guojin, Heinrich, Viola, Besnard, Simon, Robinson, Nathaniel, Cook-Patton, Susan C., Chave, Jrme, Aragao, Luiz E. O. C., Ometto, Jean P., Bowring, Simon P. K., Fayad, Ibrahim, Zhu, Lei, Su, Yang, Wigneron, Jean-Pierre, Li, Wei

Issue&Volume: 2026-01-07

Abstract: Tropical forests store about half of the global forest aboveground carbon (AGC)1, yet extensive areas are affected by disturbances, such as deforestation from agricultural expansion2,3 and degradation from fires4, selective logging5, and edge effects6,7. Over time, disturbed forests can recover, gradually restoring carbon stocks and ecological functions8. However, how recovery rates vary with disturbance size, type and location remains poorly quantified. Here we use a bookkeeping approach with spatially explicit vegetation recovery curves to quantify AGC dynamics in disturbed tropical forests during 1990–2020. We find that disturbed tropical dry forests remained carbon neutral, whereas disturbed tropical humid forests experienced a net AGC loss of 15.6±3.7PgC, primarily driven by small but persistent deforestation clearings. Despite affecting only about 5% of the disturbed area, these small-size (less than 2ha) deforestation events accounted for about 56% of carbon losses, owing to persistent land-use conversion without forest regrowth. By contrast, large fire-induced carbon losses were offset by the long-term post-fire recovery. Over time, deforestation expanded into humid forests with higher carbon stock density, intensifying AGC losses per unit area. These findings highlight the disproportionate impact of small clearings on tropical carbon losses, suggesting the need to curb land-use changes and protect young and recovering forests.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09870-7

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09870-7