Scientists announce importance of the world’s primary forests and large, old trees in climate regulation and biodiversity conservation
Primary (unlogged) forests and large, old trees provide high biodiversity and carbon value benefits
Dominick A. DellaSala and William R. Moomaw
Summary: Primary (unlogged) forests and large old, trees (live and dead) provide multiple benefits that forestall biodiversity and climate emergencies. They have high conservation value if allowed to achieve their ecological potential to support superior biodiversity, carbon storage and ecosystem benefits.
BENEFITS OF PRIMARY AND OLDER FORESTS
- Protection of intact forests of older and middle-aged trees that have the potential to become older forests, host a wider range of biological diversity from plants and animals to ferns, fungi, lichens, invertebrates and habitat for diverse wildlife. They also store more carbon than do logged forests (1, 2) contributing disproportionately to cost-effective CO2 mitigation required to avoid a climate catastrophe (3).
- The replacement of older diverse forests with younger less diverse production forests has significantly reduced biodiversity. These forests provide more ecosystem services than managed forests including productive soils, nutrient cycling, pollination, pollution mitigation, water purification, oxygen production, climate regulation, recreation, and hunting/fishing opportunities.
- Primary forests store 30-60% more carbon than logged forests and up to half of the carbon stored in an older multiage forest is represented by the largest (oldest) 1% of trees (4, 5).
BENEFITS OF LARGE, OLD TREES
- Size and age of a tree increase over time accumulating unique features that provide habitats such as large internal cavities and canopy structures not present in younger trees.
- Large old trees are among the most massive organisms on Earth. They are keystone and bio-cultural elements of our natural inheritance, and are declining worldwide due to deforestation and forest degradation (6).
- Large, old trees provide nutrients and increased soil carbon; are associated with more plant varieties; play critical roles in hydrological cycles, and are “blueprints” for restoration (5,6).
- Large, old trees store a disproportionate amount of carbon over centuries with larger leaf surface area for CO2 absorption, and massive carbon storing tree trunks and roots (4,7).
- Large trees provide stable microclimates; less soil desiccation and lower temperatures (8).
- Large trees are nature’s “water towers” and the planets “lungs” (4,5,6)
- Mycorrhiza soil fungal networks become more connected and carbon rich as forests mature.
Sources:
- Brandt, P et al 2014. Multifunctionality and biodiversity: ecosystem services in temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest. Biol Conserv. 169:362-371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2013.12.003
- Mackey B, et al 2014. Policy options for the world’s primary forests in multilateral environmental agreements. Conservation Letters 8:139-147.
- Griscom, B W et al 2017. Natural climate solutions. PNAS 114:11645-11650.
- Mackey, B 2014. Counting trees, carbon, and climate change. The Royal Statistical Society:19-23.
- Lutz, J A et al 2018. Global importance of large diameter trees. Global Ecol Biogeogr:1-16.
- Lindenmayer, D L et al 2012. Global decline in large trees. Science 338:1305-1306. doi 10.1126/science.1231070
- Keith, H et al 2009. Reevaluation of forest biomass carbon stocks and lessons from the world’s most carbon-dense forests. PNAS:pnas.org_cgi_doi_10.1073_pnas.0901970106.
- Frey, S J K et al 2016. Spatial models reveal the microclimatic buffering capacity of old-growth forests. Sci Adv 2016:e1501392. 9 pp. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1501392
About the authors
Dominick Della Sala is President and Chief Scientist of the Geos Institute in Ashland Oregon. He is Editor and prime author of “Temperate and Boreal Rainforests of the World: Ecology & Conservation” https://islandpress.org/author/dominick-a-dellasala, Co-editor “The World’s Biomes” (Elsevier, in press) and has produced over 200 additional books and research articles on forests, biodiversity and climate change.
William R. Moomaw is Professor Emeritus at Tufts University, a climate scientist and five-time IPCC lead author, and was coordinating lead author of the Special Report on Renewable Energy for Climate Mitigation (including biological systems). He has published research articles on Proforestation management to increase forest carbon storage and additional papers on the role of forests and wetlands in the carbon cycle. He is a co-author of the World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency that was signed by over 11,000 scientists in 2019. He also chairs the board of directors of the Woods Hole Research Center, a leading climate, land and carbon research institute.
https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12120
Robert Macnee, Ph.D. is Deputy Director of Resilience Services at Climate Resilience Consulting, where he helps governments, institutions, and communities reduce climate risk in equitable and practical ways. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Management focused on climate change impacts on health and communities, and brings over a decade of experience spanning economic development, resilience planning, and implementation.
Samantha Medlock is President of Climate Risk Advisors, helping communities and organizations advance equity, sustainability, and resilience. Her career began chasing floods as a local official in Texas Flash Flood Alley—a hands-on experience that still shapes her approach to climate and disaster risk management.
Arsum is the Senior Adaptation and Coastal Resilience Specialist for the National Wildlife Federation’s Southcentral Region. In this role, she advances climate adaptation efforts, with a focus on nature-based approaches to address the impacts of climate change and extreme events across the Gulf region. She has authored and co-authored numerous publications on climate impact assessments and adaptation solutions. Additionally, she regularly participates in state-based coastal resilience and hazard mitigation planning across the Gulf, collaborating with regional and local stakeholders.
Jim is a multilingual world traveler. Based in Bavaria during the 1970s, Jim spent most of this period in India, Afghanistan and Nepal, where he founded and operated a charitable medical clinic serving Tibetan Refugees. He settled in Oregon in 1983 on a forested ranch in the Umpqua National Forest.
Dr. Micah Hahn is an Associate Professor of Environmental Health in the Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies at the University of Alaska-Anchorage. She received her joint PhD in Epidemiology / Environment and Resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her MPH in Global Environmental Health from Emory University. Subsequently, she was a postdoctoral fellow for the CDC Climate and Health Program, and in this position worked collaboratively with the CDC Division of Vector-borne Diseases and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Her research focuses on understanding the health impacts of climate change and working with communities to develop locally-relevant adaptation and resilience-building strategies. Dr. Hahn is also on the Management Team of the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center.
Michael is a former Founding Principal of Resilient Cities Catalyst, a global non-profit helping cities and their partners tackle their toughest challenges. He is currently the Executive Director of Climate Resilience Academy at the University of Miami.
Dr. Quintus Jett is a consultant, educator, and strategist for public causes. He has a doctorate in Organizations & Management from Stanford University, and a two-decade faculty career which spans schools, departments, and programs of business, engineering, liberal studies, divinity, and public and nonprofit management. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Dr. Jett launched a volunteer project in New Orleans, which enlisted residents, students from over a dozen colleges and universities, and hundreds of others to field map the city’s Gentilly district, Lower Ninth Ward, and New Orleans East. Dr. Jett is an innovator in higher education, bridging the divide between academic research and the other priorities of the modern university, including student access and diversity, community engagement, and providing foundations for life-long learning in today’s rapidly changing world.
Scott is Monfort Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. He has written about 100 publications in the peer-reviewed climate literature, is a former editor of the Journal of Climate, and served for five years as founding Science Chair of the North American Carbon Program.
Linda has many years of experience in disaster preparedness and resilience. She has been an elected official on the Linn County Iowa Board of Supervisors, Chair of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, the East Central Iowa Council of Governments, the statewide Mental Health Developmental Disability and the Linn County Board of Health. Langston is a former president of the National Association of Counties (2013-2014).
Ken works with families and organizations as a mediator, organizational consultant, trainer and facilitator. Along with his passion for helping people prepare for and reduce climate change, Ken also volunteers as a mediator through Mediation Works and is passionate about supporting youth through mentoring with Boys to Men of Southern Oregon.
Matthew is a retired high school teacher who was once honored as Oregon High School Social Studies Teacher of the Year. Before his teaching career he was in the restaurant business in Portland. He is also a lawyer who has been a member of the Oregon State Bar Association since 1980.
Andrea is the Resilience Policy Advisor for the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency. She works across state agencies and with local governments to increase the state’s resilience to the impacts of climate change.