o:3759 Integrated global assessment of the natural forest carbon potential en Forests are a substantial terrestrial carbon sink, but anthropogenic changes in land use and climate have considerably reduced the scale of this system1. Remote-sensing estimates to quantify carbon losses from global forests2,3,4,5 are characterized by considerable uncertainty and we lack a comprehensive ground-sourced evaluation to benchmark these estimates. Here we combine several ground-sourced6 and satellite-derived approaches2,7,8 to evaluate the scale of the global forest carbon potential outside agricultural and urban lands. Despite regional variation, the predictions demonstrated remarkable consistency at a global scale, with only a 12% difference between the ground-sourced and satellite-derived estimates. At present, global forest carbon storage is markedly under the natural potential, with a total deficit of 226 Gt (model range = 151–363 Gt) in areas with low human footprint. Most (61%, 139 Gt C) of this potential is in areas with existing forests, in which ecosystem protection can allow forests to recover to maturity. The remaining 39% (87 Gt C) of potential lies in regions in which forests have been removed or fragmented. Although forests cannot be a substitute for emissions reductions, our results support the idea2,3,9 that the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of diverse forests offer valuable contributions to meeting global climate and biodiversity targets. 1552099 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06723-z 2024-01-15T12:00:22.180Z 44 yes 46 Lidong Mo 46 Constantin M. Zohner  46 Peter B. Reich  46 Jingjing Liang  46 Sergio de Miguel  46 Gert-Jan Nabuurs  46 Susanne S. Renner  46 Johan van den Hoogen  46 Arnan Araza  46 Martin Herold  46 Leila Mirzagholi  46 Haozhi Ma  46 Colin Averill  46 Oliver L. Phillips  46 Javier G. P. Gamarra  46 Iris Hordijk  46 Devin Routh  46 Meinrad Abegg  46 Yves C. Adou Yao  46 Giorgio Alberti  46 Angelica M. Almeyda Zambrano  46 Braulio Vilchez Alvarado  46 Esteban Alvarez-Dávila  46 Patricia Alvarez-Loayza  46 Luciana F. Alves  46 Iêda   Amaral 46 Christian Ammer  46 Clara Antón-Fernández  46 Alejandro Araujo-Murakami  46 Luzmila Arroyo  46 Valerio Avitabile  46 Gerardo A. Aymard  46 Timothy R. Baker  46 Radomir Bałazy  46 Olaf Banki  46 Jorcely G. Barroso  46 Meredith L. Bastian  46 Jean-Francois   Bastin 46 Luca Birigazzi  46 Philippe Birnbaum  46 Robert Bitariho  46 Pascal Boeckx  46 Frans Bongers  46 Olivier Bouriaud  46 Pedro H. S. Brancalion  46 Susanne Brandl  46 Francis Q. Brearley  46 Roel   Brienen 46 Eben N. Broadbent  46 Helge Bruelheide  46 Filippo Bussotti  46 Roberto Cazzolla Gatti  46 Ricardo G. César  46 Goran Cesljar  0000-0003-0438-1050 46 Robin L. Chazdon  46 Han Y. H. Chen  46 Chelsea Chisholm  46 Hyunkook Cho  46 Emil Cienciala  46 Connie Clark  46 David Clark  46 Gabriel D. Colletta  46 David A. Coomes  46 Fernando Cornejo Valverde  46 José J. Corral-Rivas  46 Philip M. Crim  46 Jonathan R. Cumming  46 Selvadurai Dayanandan  46 André L. de Gasper  46 Mathieu Decuyper  46 Géraldine Derroire  46 Ben DeVries  46 Ilija Djordjevic  0000-0001-9499-3565 46 Aurélie Dourdain  46 Nestor Laurier Engone Obiang  46 Brian J. Enquist  46 Teresa J. Eyre  46 Adandé Belarmain Fandohan  46 Tom M. Fayle  46 Ted R. Feldpausch  46 Leandro V. Ferreira  46 Leena Finér  46 Markus Fischer  46 Christine   Fletcher 46 Lorenzo Frizzera  46 Damiano Gianelle  46 Henry B. Glick  46 David J. Harris  46 Andrew Hector  46 Andreas Hemp  46 Geerten Hengeveld  46 Bruno Hérault  46 John L. Herbohn  46 Annika Hillers  46 Eurídice N. Honorio Coronado  46 Cang Hui  46 Thomas Ibanez  46 Nobuo Imai  46 Andrzej M. Jagodziński  46 Bogdan Jaroszewicz  46 Vivian Kvist Johannsen  46 Carlos A. Joly  46 Tommaso Jucker  46 Ilbin Jung  46 Viktor Karminov  46 Kuswata Kartawinata  46 Elizabeth Kearsley  46 David Kenfack  46 Deborah K.   Kennard 46 Sebastian Kepfer-Rojas  46 Gunnar Keppel  46 Mohammed Latif Khan  46 Timothy J. Killeen  46 Hyun Seok Kim  46 Kanehiro Kitayama  46 Michael Köhl  46 Henn Korjus  46 Florian Kraxner  46 Dmitry Kucher  46 Diana Laarmann  46 Mait Lang  46 Huicui Lu  46 Natalia V. Lukina  46 Brian S. Maitner  46 Yadvinder Malhi  46 Eric Marcon  46 Beatriz Schwantes Marimon  46 Ben Hur Marimon-Junior  46 Andrew R. Marshall  46 Emanuel H. Martin  46 Jorge A. Meave  46 Omar Melo-Cruz  46 Casimiro Mendoza  46 Irina Mendoza-Polo  46 Stanislaw Miscicki  46 Cory Merow  46 Abel Monteagudo Mendoza  46 Vanessa S. Moreno  46 Sharif A. Mukul  46 Philip Mundhenk  46 María Guadalupe Nava-Miranda  46 David Neill  46 Victor J. Neldner  46 Radovan V.   Nevenic 46 Michael R.   Ngugi 46 Pascal A. Niklaus  46 Jacek Oleksyn  46 Petr   Ontikov 46 Edgar Ortiz-Malavasi  46 Yude Pan  46 Alain Paquette  46 Alexander Parada-Gutierrez  46 Elena I. Parfenova  46 Minjee Park  46 Marc Parren  46 Narayanaswamy Parthasarathy  46 Pablo L. Peri  46 Sebastian Pfautsch  46 Nicolas Picard  46 Maria Teresa F. Piedade  46 Daniel Piotto  46 Nigel C. A. Pitman  46 Axel Dalberg Poulsen  46 John R. Poulsen  46 Hans Pretzsch  46 Freddy Ramirez Arevalo  46 Zorayda Restrepo-Correa  46 Mirco Rodeghiero  46 Samir G.   Rolim 46 Anand Roopsind  46 Francesco Rovero  46 Ervan Rutishauser  46 Purabi Saikia  46 Christian Salas-Eljatib  46 Philippe Saner  46 Peter Schall  46 Mart-Jan   Schelhaas 46 Dmitry Schepaschenko  46 Michael Scherer-Lorenzen  46 Bernhard Schmid  46 Jochen Schöngart  46 Eric B. Searle  46 Vladimír Seben  46 Josep M. Serra-Diaz  46 Douglas Sheil  46 Anatoly Z. Shvidenko  46 Javier E. Silva-Espejo  46 Marcos Silveira  46 James Singh  46 Plinio Sist  46 Ferry Slik  46 Bonaventure   Sonké 46 Alexandre F. Souza  46 Krzysztof J. Stereńczak  46 Jens-Christian Svenning  46 Miroslav   Svoboda 46 Ben Swanepoel  46 Natalia Targhetta  46 Nadja Tchebakova  46 Hans ter Steege  46 Raquel Thomas  46 Elena Tikhonova  46 Peter M. Umunay  46 Vladimir A. Usoltsev  46 Renato Valencia  46 Fernando Valladares  46 Fons van der Plas  46 Tran Van Do  46 Michael E. van Nuland  46 Rodolfo M. Vasquez  46 Hans Verbeeck  46 Helder Viana  46 Alexander C. Vibrans  46 Simone Vieira  46 Klaus von Gadow  46 Hua-Feng Wang  46 James V. Watson  46 Gijsbert D. A. Werner  46 Susan K. Wiser  46 Florian Wittmann  46 Hannsjoerg Woell  46 Verginia Wortel  46 Roderik Zagt  46 Tomasz Zawiła-Niedźwiecki  46 Chunyu Zhang  46 Xiuhai Zhao  46 Mo Zhou  46 Zhi-Xin Zhu  46 Irie C. Zo-Bi  46 George D. Gann 46 Thomas W. Crowther application/pdf 4325041 https://unilib.phaidrabg.rs/o:3759 no yes 16 70 1552253 Nature 624 92 101 Nature 2023