by Matteo Cavallito<\/p>\n
Forest conservation<\/strong> and post-disturbance regeneration are both regarded as key strategies for climate change mitigation. So far, however, scientific research and environmental policies have focused primarily on the effects of deforestation<\/strong>. By contrast, studies on forest degradation<\/strong>\u2014caused by wildfires, selective logging, habitat fragmentation<\/a>, drought and other disturbances\u2014have long been hampered by the difficulty of measuring the phenomenon, even though scientists know it can severely impair forests’ ability to store carbon.<\/p>\n A new study by the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences<\/strong> in Potsdam, Germany, has now filled this gap. The institute led an international consortium comprising dozens of researchers who compiled and harmonized the results of 146 studies carried out since 1988 across tropical forests in the Americas, Africa and Asia. The result is a pantropical database<\/strong> that, according to the authors, represents one of the most comprehensive assessments ever produced of forest carbon dynamics following disturbances and during subsequent regeneration.<\/p>\n