Réjou-Méchain Maxime, Mortier F., Bastin J. F., Cornu G., Barbier Nicolas, Bayol N., Benedet F., Bry X., Dauby Gilles, Deblauwe V., Doucet J. L., Doumenge C., Fayolle A., Garcia C., Lubamba J. P. K., Loumeto J. J., Ngomanda A., Ploton Pierre, Sonke B., Trottier C., Vimal R., Yongo O., Pélissier Raphaël, Gourlet-Fleury S. (2021). Unveiling African rainforest composition and vulnerability to global change. Nature, 593, p. 90-94 + 21 p. ISSN 0028-0836.
Titre du document
Unveiling African rainforest composition and vulnerability to global change
Année de publication
2021
Auteurs
Réjou-Méchain Maxime, Mortier F., Bastin J. F., Cornu G., Barbier Nicolas, Bayol N., Benedet F., Bry X., Dauby Gilles, Deblauwe V., Doucet J. L., Doumenge C., Fayolle A., Garcia C., Lubamba J. P. K., Loumeto J. J., Ngomanda A., Ploton Pierre, Sonke B., Trottier C., Vimal R., Yongo O., Pélissier Raphaël, Gourlet-Fleury S.
Source
Nature, 2021,
593, p. 90-94 + 21 p. ISSN 0028-0836
Africa is forecasted to experience large and rapid climate change(1) and population growth(2) during the twenty-first century, which threatens the world's second largest rainforest. Protecting and sustainably managing these African forests requires an increased understanding of their compositional heterogeneity, the environmental drivers of forest composition and their vulnerability to ongoing changes. Here, using a very large dataset of 6 million trees in more than 180,000 field plots, we jointly model the distribution in abundance of the most dominant tree taxa in central Africa, and produce continuous maps of the floristic and functional composition of central African forests. Our results show that the uncertainty in taxon-specific distributions averages out at the community level, and reveal highly deterministic assemblages. We uncover contrasting floristic and functional compositions across climates, soil types and anthropogenic gradients, with functional convergence among types of forest that are floristically dissimilar. Combining these spatial predictions with scenarios of climatic and anthropogenic global change suggests a high vulnerability of the northern and southern forest margins, the Atlantic forests and most forests in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where both climate and anthropogenic threats are expected to increase sharply by 2085. These results constitute key quantitative benchmarks for scientists and policymakers to shape transnational conservation and management strategies that aim to provide a sustainable future for central African forests. A large dataset of 6 million trees from 193 taxa is used to map the floristic and functional composition of central African forests and predict their vulnerability to climate change.
Plan de classement
Sciences du milieu [021]
;
Sciences du monde végétal [076]
;
Etudes, transformation, conservation du milieu naturel [082]
Description Géographique
AFRIQUE CENTRALE
Localisation
Fonds IRD [F B010081301]
Identifiant IRD
fdi:010081301
