Tropical forests post-logging are a persistent net carbon source to the atmosphere

Significance Logged tropical forests are counted as important carbon sinks in global carbon budgets due to the woody biomass they regain when they regrow following disturbance, but this assumption ignores the simultaneous carbon losses from the ecosystem. We found that, when quantifying all the source and sink terms of the ecosystem carbon budget, logged tropical forests are a net source of carbon to the atmosphere. This source persists at least 10 y following logging, meaning rates of carbon sequestration in recovering tropical forests are likely much lower than estimated.

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