Key role of forests 'may be lost' 森林吸收CO2的关键角色“可能消失”

Forests' role as massive carbon sinks is "at risk of being lost entirely¹", top forestry² scientists have warned.

首席森林科学家警告，森林吸收二氧化碳的作用“处于完全消失的危险之中”。

Coniferous forests are particularly susceptible³ to climatic changes

The International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) says forests are under increasing degrees of stress as a result of climate change.

Forests could release vast amounts of carbon if temperatures rise 2.5C (4.5F) above pre-industrial levels, it adds.

The findings will be presented at the UN Forum⁴ on Forests, which begins on Monday in New York.

Compiled by 35 leading forestry scientists, the report provides what is described as the first global assessment⁵（估价，评估） of the ability of forests to adapt to climate change.

"We normally think of forests as putting the brakes on global warming," observed Professor Risto Seppala from the Finnish Forest Research Institute, who chaired the report's expert panel.

"But over the next few decades, damage induced by climate change could cause forests to release huge quantities of carbon and create a situation in which they do more to accelerate warming than to slow it down."

Warm winters have allowed spruce beetles⁶ to cause widespread damage

Debate defining

The scientists hope that the report, called Adaption of Forests and People to Climate Change - A Global Assessment, will help inform climate negotiators.

The international climate debate has focused primarily on emissions⁷ from deforestation（森林采伐）, but the researchers say their analysis shows that attention must also be paid to the impacts of climate change on forests.

While deforestation is responsible for about 20% of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, forests currently absorb（吸收） more carbon than they emit（发出，放射）.

But the problem is that the balance could shift as the planet warms, the report concludes, and the sequestration（吸收） service provided by the forest biomes "could be lost entirely if the Earth heats up by 2.5C or more".

The assessment says higher temperatures - along with prolonged（持续很久的） droughts, more pest invasions（侵入）, and other environmental stresses - would trigger considerable forest destruction and degradation（降格，堕落）.

This could create a dangerous feedback loop（反馈回路）, it adds, in which damage to forests from climate change would increase global carbon emissions that then exacerbate⁸（加重） global warming.

The report's key findings include:

• Droughts are projected to become more intense and frequent in subtropical（亚热带的） and southern temperate⁹ forests

• Commercial timber（木材，木料） plantations¹⁰ are set to become unviable（不能养活的，不能生育的） in some areas, but more productive in others

• Climate change could result in "deepening poverty, deteriorating¹¹（恶化） public health, and social conflict" among African forest-dependent communities

The IUFRO assessment will be considered by delegates at the eighth session of the UN Forum on Forests, which has the objective of promoting the "management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forest".

Co-author Professor Andreas Fischlin from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology commented: "Even if adaption measures are fully¹² implemented¹³, unmitigated（未缓和的，严厉的） climate change would - during the course of the current century - exceed（超过，胜过） the adaptive（适合的，适应的） capacity of many forests.

"The fact remains¹⁴ that the only way to ensure that forests do not suffer unprecedented¹⁵（空前的） harm is to achieve large reductions in greenhouse gas emissions."