Tropical forests are central to the functioning of the Earth system: they regulate climate, are biodiversity hotspots, and store vast amounts of carbon in their biomass and soils. Yet, their responses to climate and land-use change are increasingly recognized as nonlinear, with the potential for abrupt, self-propelling shifts towards alternative states. The existence of such tipping points for African tropical forests—home to the world’s second-largest rainforest block—have been far less investigated than for for the Amazon. And generally speaking, Africa, tropical forests remain a major blindspot in global tropical forest ecology, which contrasts with the major services that this biome provide.
Central African forests are indeed among the most carbon-dense on Earth, host the planet’s largest tropical peatland complex, and have functioned as a robust carbon sink in recent decades. At the same time, they are subject to mounting pressures: deforestation, forest degradation, and rapid climatic changes. The ecological and climatic specificities of African forests reinforce the need for focused study on the area. Their floristic composition, biogeochemistry, edaphic conditions, fire regimes, and anthropogenic pressures differ markedly from other tropical regions. Ignoring these regional specificities risks overgeneralizing pantropical assessments and underestimating the unique vulnerabilities—or potential resilience—of African systems.
This session seeks to address this critical research gap by bringing together studies that combine field observations, remote sensing, and process-based model simulations that examine the main biogeochemical cycles of African tropical forests, and investigate their functioning, resilience, and potential tipping dynamics.
N. Barbier, Sacha Delecluse