Schnabel et al. (2025): Tree Diversity Increases Carbon Stocks and Fluxes Above—But Not Belowground in a Tropical Forest Experiment

Florian Schnabel, Joannès Guillemot, Kathryn E. Barry, Melanie Brunn, Simone Cesarz, Nico Eisenhauer, Tobias Gebauer, Nathaly R. Guerrero-Ramirez, I. Tanya Handa, Chris Madsen, Lady Mancilla, Jose Monteza, Tim Moore, Yvonne Oelmann, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Luitgard Schwendenmann, Audrey Wagner, Christian Wirth, Catherine Potvin IN: Global Change Biology, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70089

International commitments advocate large-scale forest restoration as a nature-based solution to climate change mitigation through carbon (C) sequestration. Mounting evidence suggests that mixed compared to monospecific planted forests may sequester more C, exhibit lower susceptibility to climate extremes and offer a broader range of ecosystem services. However, experimental studies comprehensively examining the control of tree diversity on multiple C stocks and fluxes above- and belowground are lacking. To address this gap, the authors leverage data from the Sardinilla experiment in Panama, the oldest tropical tree diversity experiment, which features a gradient of one-, two-, three- and five-species mixtures of native tree species.

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