Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 19431–19435 (2011)

Credit: © MACMILLAN AUSTRALIA

Tropical deforestation contributed about 16% of the total anthropogenic carbon emissions between 2000 and 2006. In addition to releasing carbon into the atmosphere, deforestation changes land surface reflectivity, which affects regional temperature and precipitation patterns. Reduced-impact logging, which selects certain valuable trees, is intended to minimize disruption of the forest canopy, but the effect of this logging practice on land–atmosphere carbon exchange has not been well quantified.

Scott Miller of the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center at the State University of New York, US, and co-workers measured carbon dioxide exchange and various ecological parameters to investigate the effects of selective logging on carbon exchange in an old-growth Amazonian forest.

Results suggest that the logging caused small decreases in primary production, leaf production and latent heat flux, and increases in respiration, tree mortality and wood production. The net effect of reduced-impact logging was short lived and effects were barely discernible after only one year. The authors suggest that reduced-impact logging provides a potential strategy for managing tropical forest that minimizes risks to the climate.