Ascenzi Irene, Hilbers Jelle P, van Katwijk Marieke M, Huijbregts Mark A J, Hanssen Steef V
Department of Environmental Science, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Department of Circularity & Sustainability Impacts, TNO, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Nat Commun. 2025 Jan 14;16(1):637. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-55980-1.
Ecosystem restoration can contribute to climate change mitigation, as recovering ecosystems sequester atmospheric CO in biomass and soils. It is, however, unclear how much soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks recover across different restored ecosystems. Here, we show SOC recovery in different contexts globally by consolidating 41 meta-analyses into a second-order meta-analysis. We find that restoration projects have, since their inception, led to significant SOC increases compared to the degraded state in 12 out of 16 ecosystem-previous land-use combinations, with mean SOC increases thus far that range from 25% (grasslands; 10-39%, 95% CI) to 79% (shrublands; 38-120% CI). Yet, we observe a SOC deficit in restored ecosystems compared to pristine sites, ranging from 14% (forests; 12-16% CI) to 50% (wetlands; 14-87% CI). While restoration does increase carbon sequestration in SOC, it should not be viewed as a way to fully offset carbon losses in natural ecosystems, whose conservation has priority.
生态系统恢复有助于缓解气候变化，因为恢复的生态系统会在生物量和土壤中封存大气中的二氧化碳。然而，目前尚不清楚不同恢复生态系统中土壤有机碳（SOC）储量恢复的程度。在此，我们通过将41项荟萃分析整合为二阶荟萃分析，展示了全球不同背景下的SOC恢复情况。我们发现，自恢复项目启动以来，在16种生态系统-先前土地利用组合中的12种情况下，与退化状态相比，SOC显著增加，目前平均SOC增加幅度从25%（草原；10 - 39%，95%置信区间）到79%（灌丛；38 - 120%置信区间）。然而，与原始场地相比，我们观察到恢复生态系统中存在SOC亏缺，范围从14%（森林；12 - 16%置信区间）到50%（湿地；14 - 87%置信区间）。虽然恢复确实会增加SOC中的碳固存，但不应将其视为完全抵消自然生态系统中碳损失的一种方式，保护自然生态系统应优先考虑。
