Abstract The twin pressures of climate change and biodiversity loss mean that it is imperative to manage land in ways that benefit carbon storage and biodiversity conservation. We focus on a set of UK habitats of recognised conservation value, first quantifying the carbon stored in the vegetation and top 30 cm of soil in these areas. We estimate that these areas store 0.55 gigatonnes of carbon in vegetation and soil to a depth of 30 cm, approximately 30% of the UK terrestrial carbon store to a similar depth, on 20% of the land area. Most of these high carbon, high conservation value habitats are in upland areas, with particularly notable extents and mass of carbon in Scotland. In their current condition, we estimate these areas to exert a net sequestration effect of more than 8 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents per year. Furthermore, restoration of these habitats from their current, generally poor condition could result in an extra 6–7 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents per year, in the context of the UK's total emissions of 455.9 million tonnes CO2eq in 2017. Restoration of degraded bogs would avoid significant annual emissions (currently negating significant sequestration by woodlands and coastal habitats) and should be a particular priority.

中文翻译：

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具有保护重要性的栖息地对英国减缓气候变化的价值

摘要 气候变化和生物多样性丧失的双重压力意味着必须以有利于碳储存和生物多样性保护的方式管理土地。我们专注于一组具有公认保护价值的英国栖息地，首先量化这些地区植被和前 30 厘米土壤中储存的碳。我们估计这些区域在 30 厘米深度的植被和土壤中储存了 0.55 吉吨的碳，约占英国陆地面积 20% 和相似深度的陆地碳储存量的 30%。大多数这些高碳、高保护价值的栖息地位于高地地区，苏格兰的碳含量和质量尤为显着。在目前的情况下，我们估计这些地区每年可产生超过 800 万吨二氧化碳当量的净封存效应。此外，