Peri‐urban agroforestry for climate mitigation in West Africa: Structural diversity and functional traits as key drivers of carbon storage

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Provides empirical evidence on how tree diversity traits affect carbon storage in agroforestry, useful for ecological modeling and nature-based solution research.

🏢実務担当者:Offers actionable insights for urban planners and extension services in designing agroforestry systems that maximize carbon sequestration.

🏛政策担当者:Could support development of land-use policies that promote agroforestry for climate mitigation in tropical urbanizing regions.

Peri‐urban areas in West Africa are expanding rapidly, often with limited planning and growing exposure to climate risks. Our study shows that agroforestry systems in these landscapes, especially diverse home gardens, can store substantial amounts of carbon when they include structurally complex stands and species with traits that favor biomass accumulation. By revealing how tree structural diversity and functional traits control carbon storage, our results provide practical guidance for urban planners, extension services, and local authorities who seek nature‐based solutions that link climate mitigation, livelihood support, and biodiversity conservation in rapidly urbanizing regions. Rapid urbanization in West Africa is transforming peri‐urban landscapes and threatening key ecosystem functions, including carbon sequestration. Agroforestry systems in these areas offer important opportunities for climate change mitigation, yet the ecological drivers of their carbon storage remain poorly understood. In this study, we quantified stand structure and aboveground carbon (AGC) stocks in 314 plots across three agroforestry system types (home gardens, parklands, and plantation‐based systems) in six peri‐urban areas spanning the three climatic zones of Benin. We combined linear mixed‐effects models and piecewise structural equation modeling to disentangle the direct and indirect effects of taxonomic, functional, and structural diversity on AGC, while accounting for environmental variables. AGC stocks varied significantly across agroforestry systems and climate zones, with home gardens in the Guinean zone exhibiting the highest values, whereas plantation agroforestry systems consistently showed the lowest values. In home gardens, structural diversity and community‐weighted mean (CWM) of seed mass positively influenced AGC. In Plantations, CWM of seed mass was also the strongest predictor, while in Parklands, AGC was positively influenced by structural diversity, CWM of maximum height and functional dispersion. In contrast, climatic and soil variables had limited direct effects on AGC. These findings highlight the central role of structural diversity and trait‐based mechanisms in regulating carbon storage in peri‐urban agroforestry systems. Promoting structurally diverse stands and accounting for trait‐based management approaches in these systems can substantially enhance carbon storage while supporting livelihoods. This study underscores the potential of peri‐urban agroforestry as a nature‐based solution for climate mitigation in rapidly urbanizing regions of West Africa.

• semanticscholar https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.70238first seen 2026-07-15 05:50:16