Tropical forests have an important role in the global carbon (C) cycle because of their existing large areal extent, high rates of deforestation, large C pool in vegetation and soil, and high rates of C emissions resulting from conversion to other uses (equivalent to between 22 and 37% of current fossil fuel C emissions) (Table 11.1). Tropical forests currently account for about 43% of the global forest area (Dixon et al. 1994), most of which is in tropical America (52%), followed by tropical Africa (30%) and tropical Asia (18%). They occur mostly as lowland formations where 88% are at an elevation of 1000 m or less. Within the lowlands, 47% are in the rain forest ecological zone, 38% in the moist deciduous zone, and 15% in the dry to very dry zone (Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) 1993).
CITATION STYLE
Brown, S. (1996). Tropical forests and the global carbon cycle: estimating state and change in biomass density. In Forest Ecosystems, Forest Management and the Global Carbon Cycle (pp. 135–144). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-61111-7_13
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