2026-04-14T07:47:23Zhttps://recercat.cat/oai/request

oai:recercat.cat:10459.1/4670842025-09-15T18:45:29Zcom_2072_3622col_2072_479130

The global distribution and drivers of wood density and their impact on forest carbon stocks Mo, Lidong Crowther , Thomas W. Maynard, Daniel S. Van den Hoogen, Johan Ma, Haozhi Bialic-Murphy, Lalasia Liang, Jingjing Miguel Magaña, Sergio de Nabuurs, Gert-Jan Reich, Peter B. Phillips, Oliver L. Abegg, Meinrad Yao, Yves C. Adou Alberti, Giorgio Almeyda Zambrano, Angelica M. Vilchez Alvarado, Braulio Alvarez-Dávila, Esteban Alvarez-Loayza, Patricia Alves, Luciana F. Amaral, Iêda Ammer, Christian Antón-Fernández, Clara Araujo-Murakami, Alejandro Arroyo, Luzmila Avitabile, Valerio Aymard, Gerardo A. Baker, Timothy R. Bałazy, Radomir Banki, Olaf Barroso, Jorcely G. Bastian, Meredith L. The density of wood is a key indicator of the carbon investment strategies of trees, impacting productivity and carbon storage. Despite its importance, the global variation in wood density and its environmental controls remain poorly understood, preventing accurate predictions of global forest carbon stocks. Here we analyse information from 1.1 million forest inventory plots alongside wood density data from 10,703 tree species to create a spatially explicit understanding of the global wood density distribution and its drivers. Our fndings reveal a pronounced latitudinal gradient, with wood in tropical forests being up to 30% denser than that in boreal forests. In both angiosperms and gymnosperms, hydrothermal conditions represented by annual mean temperature and soil moisture emerged as the primary factors infuencing the variation in wood density globally. This indicates similar environmental flters and evolutionary adaptations among distinct plant groups, underscoring the essential role of abiotic factors in determining wood density in forest ecosystems. Additionally, our study highlights the prominent role of disturbance, such as human modifcation and fre risk, in infuencing wood density at more local scales. Factoring in the spatial variation of wood density notably changes the estimates of forest carbon stocks, leading to diferences of up to 21% within biomes. Therefore, our research contributes to a deeper understanding of terrestrial biomass distribution and how environmental changes and disturbances impact forest ecosystems. Open access funding provided by Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. 2024 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02564-9 2397-334X https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/467084 eng Reproducció del document publicat a https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02564-9 Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2024, p. 1-22 cc-by (c) The Authors, 2024 Attribution 4.0 International info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Nature Publishing Group