Fragmentation is the main driver of residual forest aboveground biomass in West African low forest-high deforestation landscapes

Traore Soulemane, Zo-Bi Irie Casimir, Piponiot Camille, Aussenac Raphaël, Herault Bruno. 2024. Fragmentation is the main driver of residual forest aboveground biomass in West African low forest-high deforestation landscapes. Trees, Forests and People, 15:100477, 14 p.

Résumé : Tropical forests play a crucial role in climate regulation due to their high carbon sequestration capacity. However, degradation and disturbances in these forests may result in significant carbon losses. This study focuses on the impact of various biophysical, anthropogenic, and landscape factors on aboveground biomass (AGB) in heavily disturbed landscapes of Côte d'Ivoire (West Africa), a typical low-forest and high-deforestation country. AGB estimates from a National Forest Inventory dataset have been linked to five categories of variables (Climate, Soil, Topography, Landscape, and Human-related) through a random forest modeling approach that addressed collinearity among variables, selected key variables from each category, and used spatial cross-validation to evaluate model performance. The comprehensive model, combining landscape composition, physical soil properties, and climate variables, demonstrated strong performance with an R-squared of 0.62. Notably, the percentage of landscape occupied by forest within a radius of 1000 m (PLAND1000) had a highly significant impact on AGB, exhibiting a notable increase when PLAND1000 exceeded 80 % and a decrease when it felt below 25 %. Soil properties, both physical (Bulk Density and Coarse Fraction) and chemical (soil pH), significantly influenced AGB, too. Interestingly, climatic, topographic, and other anthropogenic variables had minimal relevance in predicting AGB, suggesting that their effects may have been captured by landscape and soil integrative variables. In order to enhance forest preservation and restoration initiatives in the face of deforestation and fragmentation challenges in the West African region, we recommend (i) evaluating the appropriate landscape scale of effect (a 1000 m radius circle being the most significant in this study); (ii) prioritizing the preservation or restoration of dense forest landscapes; and (iii) integrating landscape composition into forest management policies.

Mots-clés Agrovoc : séquestration du carbone, déboisement, forêt tropicale, biomasse, paysage, propriété physicochimique du sol, inventaire forestier, dégradation des forêts, protection de la forêt, propriété physicochimique, morcellement des forêts, distribution géographique, facteur anthropogène

Mots-clés géographiques Agrovoc : Côte d'Ivoire, Afrique occidentale

Mots-clés libres : Côte d'Ivoire, Tropical forests, Aboveground biomass, Forest degradation, Random forest modelling, Landscape fragmentation

Classification Agris : K70 - Dégâts causés aux forêts et leur protection
F40 - Écologie végétale

Champ stratégique Cirad : CTS 4 (2019-) - Santé des plantes, des animaux et des écosystèmes

Agences de financement hors UE : Fonds Français pour l'Environnement Mondial

Projets sur financement : (FRA) Terri4Sol

Auteurs et affiliations

• Traore Soulemane, CIRAD-ES-UPR Forêts et sociétés (FRA)
• Zo-Bi Irie Casimir, CIRAD-ES-UPR Forêts et sociétés (FRA)
• Piponiot Camille, CIRAD-ES-UPR Forêts et sociétés (FRA) ORCID: 0000-0002-3473-1982
• Aussenac Raphaël, CIRAD-ES-UPR Forêts et sociétés (CIV) ORCID: 0000-0003-1191-4716
• Herault Bruno, CIRAD-ES-UPR Forêts et sociétés (FRA) ORCID: 0000-0002-6950-7286 - auteur correspondant

Source : Cirad-Agritrop (https://agritrop.cirad.fr/608640/)

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