Tropical ecosystems store over half of the world’s above-ground carbon in their biomass, making them critically important in the global fight against climate change. As carbon dioxide levels continue to rise in the atmosphere, scientists are questioning whether climate change will enhance carbon sequestration through accelerated tree growth or expose rainforests to warmer, drier climates that could increase water stress, suppress tree growth, and dry out soils.

To examine how climate change is affecting tree species and carbon sequestration in tropical forests, Mark Ashton, Morris K. Jessup Professor of Silviculture and Forest Ecology at the Yale School of the Environment, along with a team of scientists calculated above-ground biomass from tree plots in the Sinharaja Forest Reserve in Sri Lanka over a 40-year period. The area has remained undisturbed by economic activity, offering the opportunity to determine trends in biomass, and the forests are notable for harboring the highest amounts of carbon of all tropical forests, making them a particularly critical source of climate change mitigation. The Sri Lanka plots examined by the team are dominated by dipterocarp, a tall forest tree in Southeast Asia, and are home to Ceylon ironwood (Mesua nagassarium), a slow-growing tree species valued for their dense wood.

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