Increasing carbon storage in intact African tropical forests (original) (raw)

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Acknowledgements

We thank the villagers from Oban (Nigeria), Prince Town, Baneekurom and Dadieso (Ghana), Somolomo, Mekas, Lomie and Alat Makay (Cameroon) and Ekobakoba (Gabon) for hosting our fieldwork, and A. Moungazi, S. Mbadinga, H. Bourobou, L. N. Banak, T. Nzebi, K. Jeffery, SEGC/CIRMF/WCS Research Station Lopé, K. Ntim, K. Opoku, Forestry Commission of Ghana, T. Tafoek, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria, ECOFAC-Cameroon, Cameroon Ministry Scientific Research and Innovation, Cameroon Ministry of Forests and Fauna (MINFOF), Forest Development Authority (Liberia), S. Grahame, R. Lowe, L. Banin and K. C. Nguembou for field assistance and logistical support. We thank R. Condit for helping access the Edoro and Lenda data sets, C. Chatelain for providing data from the African Flowering Plants database to standardize our species identifications, J. Chave for providing allometric data, L. Poorter for providing gap size-frequency data, B. Nelson for providing large-scale blow-down data, D. Appleyard for assistance with the plot map, and the Network for Vegetation Function (Nation Evolutionary Synthesis Center and ARC-NZ) for providing some wood mass density data. This work was supported by the Royal Society and the Natural Environment Research Council (UK).

Author Contributions S.L.L., O.L.P. and Y.M. conceived the experiment. S.L.L. designed the experiment. All authors except T.R.B., M.G., G.L-G., Y.M. and J.P. contributed materials. S.L.L., T.R.B., M.G., G.L-G. O.L.P. and J.P. provided analysis tools. S.L.L., G.L-G. and M.G analysed data. S.L.L. wrote the paper. All authors commented on the analysis and presentation of the data.

Author information

Author notes

  1. James A. Comiskey, Douglas Sheil & Terry Sunderland
    Present address: Present addresses: Inventory & Monitoring Program, National Park Service, 120 Chatham Lane, Fredericksburg, Virginia 22405, USA (J.A.C.); Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, PO Box 44, Kabale, Uganda (D.S.); Centre for International Forestry Research, PO Box 6596 JKPWB, Jakata 10065, Indonesia (T.S.).,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Earth and Biosphere Institute, School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
    Simon L. Lewis, Gabriela Lopez-Gonzalez, Timothy R. Baker, Oliver L. Phillips, Ted R. Feldpausch, Manuel Gloor, Jon Lloyd, Julie Peacock & Kelvin S.-H. Peh
  2. Plant Systematic and Ecology Laboratory, University of Yaounde I, PO Box 047, Yaounde, Cameroon ,
    Bonaventure Sonké & Marie-Noël Djuikouo K
  3. Resource Management Support Centre, Forestry Commission of Ghana, PO Box 1457, Kumasi, Ghana ,
    Kofi Affum-Baffoe & Raymond Votere
  4. Department of Environmental Management and Toxicology, University of Agriculture, PMB 2240, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria,
    Lucas O. Ojo
  5. Bureau Waardenburg bv, PO Box 365, 4100 AJ Culemborg, The Netherlands ,
    Jan M. Reitsma
  6. Institut de Recherche en Ecologie Tropicale (IRET), BP 7847, Libreville, Gabon ,
    Lee White
  7. SI/MAB Biodiversity Program, Smithsonian Institution, Suite 3123, 1100 Jefferson Drive SW, Washington DC 20560, USA ,
    James A. Comiskey & Terry Sunderland
  8. Department of Environmental Sciences, Forest Ecology & Management Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 342, NL-6700, The Netherlands,
    Corneille E. N. Ewango
  9. Plantlife International, 14 Rollestone Street, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP1 1DX, UK ,
    Alan C. Hamilton
  10. Wildlife Conservation Society–DRC, 1725 Avenue Monjiba, Chanic Building 2nd floor, Ngalinema, BP 240, Kinshasa I, Democratic Republic of Congo ,
    Terese Hart & Jean-Remy Makana
  11. Département Hommes, Eco-anthropologie et ethnobiologie, Natures, Sociétés, MNHN, 4 av. du Petit Château, 91 800 Brunoy, France,
    Annette Hladik
  12. Environment Department, Centre for Ecology, Law and Policy, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK
    Jon C. Lovett & James Taplin
  13. Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK
    Yadvinder Malhi
  14. Department of Botany, University of Dar es Salaam, PO Box 35060, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,
    Frank M. Mbago & Henry J. Ndangalasi
  15. Centre for International Forestry Research, PO Box 0113 BOCBD, Bogor 16000, Indonesia ,
    Douglas Sheil
  16. Department of Plant & Soil Science, Cruickshank Building, School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, St Machar Drive, Aberdeen AB24 3UU, UK,
    Michael D. Swaine
  17. Department of Geography, Museum Building, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College, University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Republic of Ireland
    David Taylor
  18. Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, 33 Willcocks Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3B3, Canada ,
    Sean C. Thomas
  19. Sommersbergseestr. 291, A-8990 Bad Aussee, Austria
    Hannsjörg Wöll

Authors

  1. Simon L. Lewis
  2. Gabriela Lopez-Gonzalez
  3. Bonaventure Sonké
  4. Kofi Affum-Baffoe
  5. Timothy R. Baker
  6. Lucas O. Ojo
  7. Oliver L. Phillips
  8. Jan M. Reitsma
  9. Lee White
  10. James A. Comiskey
  11. Marie-Noël Djuikouo K
  12. Corneille E. N. Ewango
  13. Ted R. Feldpausch
  14. Alan C. Hamilton
  15. Manuel Gloor
  16. Terese Hart
  17. Annette Hladik
  18. Jon Lloyd
  19. Jon C. Lovett
  20. Jean-Remy Makana
  21. Yadvinder Malhi
  22. Frank M. Mbago
  23. Henry J. Ndangalasi
  24. Julie Peacock
  25. Kelvin S.-H. Peh
  26. Douglas Sheil
  27. Terry Sunderland
  28. Michael D. Swaine
  29. James Taplin
  30. David Taylor
  31. Sean C. Thomas
  32. Raymond Votere
  33. Hannsjörg Wöll

Corresponding author

Correspondence toSimon L. Lewis.

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Lewis, S., Lopez-Gonzalez, G., Sonké, B. et al. Increasing carbon storage in intact African tropical forests.Nature 457, 1003–1006 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07771

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