Denmark’s long-running effort to create forests on former farmland has revealed a striking trade-off between carbon storage and biodiversity. After 21 years, scientists compared naturally regenerated forests with areas deliberately planted with trees. Plantations accumulated tree biomass and captured carbon faster, while naturally colonised forests developed greater diversity and more varied ecological structures. The University of Copenhagen conducted a rare long-term comparison of two approaches to forest restoration and found why future reforestation projects may need to balance rapid carbon capture with biodiversity recovery and ecological complexity.
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