One exciting development has been the description of three giant trees in the YTGC region during 2022–2023. Using a combination of space-borne and high-accuracy near-surface drone and backpack lidar, we described a 76.8-m-tall Pinus bhutanica in Medog county, an 83.4-m-tall Abies ernestii var. salouenensis in Zayu county (first identified by K. Guo’s team from the Institute of Botany at Chinese Academy of Sciences) and a 102.3-m-tall cypress tree in Bome county (height estimates are previously unpublished). The cypress is likely to be Cupressus austrotibetica; our estimates put it as the tallest tree known in Asia.
Around this cypress, we identified 108 trees with heights that exceed 70 m in a 22.4-ha area of C. austrotibetica forest (Fig. 1a,c). Of the 108 trees, 34 exceeded 85 m in height, and two were above 100 m tall. We estimate that the 102.3-m-tall C. austrotibetica would be aged over 1,000 years, weigh approximately 183 tonnes and contain 100 tonnes of carbon stock. The intricate vertical structure of these giant trees nurtures a diverse assemblage of lichens, ferns, mosses and orchids that, in turn, provides habitat for numerous species of invertebrates and vertebrates. These forests represent a hotspot of giant trees in the world, as well as important additions to the oldest known trees in China3.
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Acknowledgements
We thank communities in Medog for sharing knowledge and guidance, China State Forest and Grassland Administration, Forest and Grassland Bureau of Tibetan Autonomous Region, and Government of Linzhi Prefecture and Motuo County for research permission and support, as well as CICC charity foundation, China Green Carbon Foundation, and GAC Toyota for funding. Funding was provided by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant 2022YFF130202); International Research Centre of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals (grant no. CBAS2022GSP06); and National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 42371329 and 31971575).
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These authors contributed equally: Yu Ren, Cheng Li.
Authors and Affiliations
Institute of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
Yu Ren,Haitao Yang,Kai Cheng,Mengxi Chen,Zekun Yang&Qinghua Guo
Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
Yu Ren,Fangyuan Hua,Zhixin Cheng&Qinghua Guo
Xizijiang Conservation Center, Shenzhen, China
Cheng Li
Shan Shui Conservation Center, Beijing, China
Kating Chau&Xiangying Shi
School of Information Science and Technology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China
Guangpeng Fan
Beijing GreenValley Technology Co., Ltd, Haidian District, Beijing, China
Guangcai Xu
Center for Nature and Society, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
Ruocheng Hu&Zhi Lu
National School of Development, Peking University, Beijing, China
Xiangying Shi
School of Tropical Agriculture and Forestry, Hainan University, Haikou, China
Hongcan Guan
Key Laboratory of Bio-Resource and Eco-Environment of Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
Kangshan Mao
State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Yanjun Su
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Yanjun Su
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Ren, Y., Li, C., Chau, K. et al. Conserving the primary forests in the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon for people and nature. Nat Ecol Evol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02383-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02383-y