Comment on "The global tree restoration potential"

Joseph W Veldman; Julie C Aleman; Swanni T Alvarado; T Michael Anderson; Sally Archibald; William J Bond; Thomas W Boutton; Nina Buchmann; Elise Buisson; Josep G Canadell; Michele de Sá Dechoum; Milton H Diaz-Toribio; Giselda Durigan; John J Ewel; G Wilson Fernandes; Alessandra Fidelis; Forrest Fleischman; Stephen P Good; Daniel M Griffith; Julia-Maria Hermann; William A Hoffmann; Soizig Le Stradic; Caroline E R Lehmann; Gregory Mahy; Ashish N Nerlekar; Jesse B Nippert; Reed F Noss; Colin P Osborne; Gerhard E Overbeck; Catherine L Parr; Juli G Pausas; R Toby Pennington; Michael P Perring; Francis E Putz; Jayashree Ratnam; Mahesh Sankaran; Isabel B Schmidt; Christine B Schmitt; Fernando A O Silveira; A Carla Staver; Nicola Stevens; Christopher J Still; Caroline A E Strömberg; Vicky M Temperton; J Morgan Varner; Nicholas P Zaloumis

doi:10.1126/science.aay7976

Comment on "The global tree restoration potential"

Science. 2019 Oct 18;366(6463):eaay7976. doi: 10.1126/science.aay7976.

Authors

Joseph W Veldman^{1

2}, Julie C Aleman^{3

4}, Swanni T Alvarado^{5

6}, T Michael Anderson⁷, Sally Archibald⁸, William J Bond⁹, Thomas W Boutton³, Nina Buchmann¹⁰, Elise Buisson¹¹, Josep G Canadell¹², Michele de Sá Dechoum¹³, Milton H Diaz-Toribio¹⁴, Giselda Durigan¹⁵, John J Ewel¹⁴, G Wilson Fernandes¹⁶, Alessandra Fidelis¹⁷, Forrest Fleischman¹⁸, Stephen P Good¹⁹, Daniel M Griffith²⁰, Julia-Maria Hermann²¹, William A Hoffmann²², Soizig Le Stradic²³, Caroline E R Lehmann^{24

25}, Gregory Mahy²⁶, Ashish N Nerlekar³, Jesse B Nippert²⁷, Reed F Noss²⁸, Colin P Osborne²⁹, Gerhard E Overbeck³⁰, Catherine L Parr^{8

31

32}, Juli G Pausas³³, R Toby Pennington^{24

34}, Michael P Perring^{35

36}, Francis E Putz¹⁴, Jayashree Ratnam³⁷, Mahesh Sankaran^{38

39}, Isabel B Schmidt⁴⁰, Christine B Schmitt^{41

42}, Fernando A O Silveira⁴³, A Carla Staver⁴⁴, Nicola Stevens⁴⁵, Christopher J Still⁴⁶, Caroline A E Strömberg⁴⁷, Vicky M Temperton⁴⁸, J Morgan Varner⁴⁹, Nicholas P Zaloumis⁵⁰

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA. veldman@tamu.edu.
² Instituto Boliviano de Investigación Forestal, Casilla 6204, Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
³ Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
⁴ Département de Géographie, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada.
⁵ Programa de Pós-graduação em Agricultura e Ambiente, Universidade Estadual de Maranhão (UEMA), Balsas, Maranhão, Brazil.
⁶ Programa de Pós-graduação em Geografia, Natureza e Dinâmica do Espaço, Universidade Estadual de Maranhão (UEMA), São Luis, Maranhão, Brazil.
⁷ Department of Biology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109, USA.
⁸ Centre for African Ecology, School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa.
⁹ Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa.
¹⁰ Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
¹¹ Avignon Université, IMBE, CNRS, IRD, Aix Marseille Université, Marseille, France.
¹² Global Carbon Project, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
¹³ Departamento de Ecologia e Zoologia, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Santa Catarina 88040-900, Brazil.
¹⁴ Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
¹⁵ Floresta Estadual de Assis, Instituto Florestal do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo 19807-300, Brazil.
¹⁶ Departamento de Biologia Geral/ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG 30161, Brazil.
¹⁷ Lab of Vegetation Ecology, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Rio Claro 13506-900, Brazil.
¹⁸ Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97330, USA.
²⁰ Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
²¹ Environmental Management, Evangelical Lutheran Church District of Rendsburg-Eckernfoerde, Rendsburg, Germany.
²² Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.
²³ Chair of Restoration Ecology, Department Ecology and Ecosystem Management, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising, Germany.
²⁴ Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH3 5LR, UK.
²⁵ School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FF, UK.
²⁶ Terra Research Unit, Biodiversity and Landscape, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium.
²⁷ Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA.
²⁸ Florida Institute for Conservation Science, Siesta Key, FL 34242, USA.
²⁹ Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK.
³⁰ Department of Botany, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS 91501-970, Brazil.
³¹ School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3GP, UK.
³² Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
³³ Desertification Research Center (CIDE-CSIC), Valencia, Spain.
³⁴ Geography, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QE, UK.
³⁵ Forest and Nature Lab, Department of Environment, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
³⁶ Ecosystem Restoration and Intervention Ecology Research Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.
³⁷ Wildlife Biology and Conservation Program, National Centre for Biological Sciences, GKVK Campus, Bengaluru 560065, India.
³⁸ National Centre for Biological Sciences, TIFR, Bengaluru 560065, India.
³⁹ School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK.
⁴⁰ Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade de Brasília, Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro, Brasília, DF 70910-900, Brazil.
⁴¹ Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
⁴² Chair of Nature Conservation and Landscape Ecology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
⁴³ Departamento de Genética, Ecologia e Evolução, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte 31270-901, Brazil.
⁴⁴ Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.
⁴⁵ Department of Botany and Zoology, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch 7602, South Africa.
⁴⁶ College of Forestry, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
⁴⁷ Department of Biology and Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98105, USA.
⁴⁸ Institute of Ecology, Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University Lüneburg, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany.
⁴⁹ Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy, Tallahassee, FL 32312, USA.
⁵⁰ Unaffiliated scholar, Cape Town 7708, South Africa.

PMID: 31624182
DOI: 10.1126/science.aay7976

Abstract

Bastin et al's estimate (Reports, 5 July 2019, p. 76) that tree planting for climate change mitigation could sequester 205 gigatonnes of carbon is approximately five times too large. Their analysis inflated soil organic carbon gains, failed to safeguard against warming from trees at high latitudes and elevations, and considered afforestation of savannas, grasslands, and shrublands to be restoration.

Publication types

Comment

MeSH terms

Carbon
Carbon Sequestration
Climate Change
Soil*
Trees*

Substances

Soil
Carbon