What is it about?
Animals disperse the seeds of more than 80% of tropical trees. When tropical forests regrow naturally after deforestation, how do local declines in seed-dispersing animals affect carbon storage of recovering forests? For the first time, the analysis shows that areas where seed dispersal is more disrupted by human activities store much less carbon -- areas where seed dispersal is most intact store on average 4x more carbon than the areas where seed dispersal by animals is most disrupted.
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Why is it important?
Our analysis shows that animal biodiversity decline is tightly linked to climate change. If ongoing animal declines reduce the carbon-storing ability of regrowing tropical forests (which are currently the largest contributor to the land carbon sink) the fight against climate change becomes a greater challenge. But there is also hope: reversing the decline of seed dispersers may not only mitigate animal biodiversity decline but also help address climate change.
Perspectives
This analysis provides what may be the clearest evidence available that animal biodiversity decline is a climate problem. But this climate-biodiversity linkage also means that animals can play an important role in addressing climate change. To be effective and efficient, our natural climate solutions must consider the roles of animals in creating and maintaining carbon-rich ecosystems.
Evan Fricke
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Seed dispersal disruption limits tropical forest regrowth, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, July 2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2500951122.
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