Disturbed African tropical forests and woodlands have the potential to contribute to climate change mitigation. Therefore, there is a need to understand how carbon stocks of disturbed and recovering tropical forests are determined by environmental conditions and human use. In this case study, we explore how gradients in environmental conditions and human use determine aboveground biomass (AGB) in 1958 national forest inventory (NFI) plots located in forests and woodlands in mainland Tanzania. Plots were divided into recovering forests (areas recovering from deforestation for <25years) and established forests (areas consistently defined as forests for ⩾25 years). This division, as well as the detection of year of forest establishment, was obtained through the use of dense satellite time series of forest cover probability. In decreasing order of importance, AGB in recovering forests unexpectedly decreased with water availability, increased with surrounding tree cover and time since establishment, and decreased with elevation, distance to roads, and soil phosphorus content. AGB in established forests unexpectedly decreased with water availability, increased with surrounding tree cover, and soil nitrogen content, and decreased with elevation. AGB in recovering forests increased by 0.4 Mg ha⁻¹yr⁻¹ during the first 20 years following establishment. Our results can serve as the basis of carbon sink estimates in African recovering tropical forests and woodlands, and aid in forest landscape restoration planning.

受干扰的非洲热带森林和林地有可能为缓解气候变化做出贡献。因此，有必要了解如何通过环境条件和人类使用来确定受干扰和正在恢复的热带森林的碳储量。在本案例研究中，我们探索环境条件和人类使用的梯度如何确定位于坦桑尼亚大陆森林和林地的1958年国家森林清单（NFI）地块中的地上生物量（AGB）。地块分为恢复森林（从砍伐森林中恢复不到25年的区域）和固定森林（一致定义为25年以内的森林）。通过使用密集的森林覆盖概率卫星时间序列，可以进行该划分以及对森林建立年份的检测。按照重要性从高到低的顺序，恢复森林中的AGB随水分供应而出乎意料地降低，随周围树木的覆盖和树立时间而增加，并随海拔，距道路的距离和土壤磷含量而降低。人工林中的AGB随水分供应而意外降低，随周围树木的覆盖和土壤氮含量而升高，并随海拔升高而降低。恢复森林中的AGB增加了0.4 Mg公顷 并随着海拔的升高而降低。恢复森林中的AGB增加了0.4 Mg公顷 并随着海拔的升高而降低。恢复森林中的AGB增加了0.4 Mg公顷成立后的前20年，- ¹年^-1。我们的结果可以作为非洲恢复热带森林和林地碳汇估算的基础，并有助于森林景观的恢复规划。