Press release
To answer this key question, an international consortium of scientists, coordinated by INRAE and Bordeaux Sciences Agro, studied the growth of 223 tree species planted in 160 experimental forests in different regions of the world. The results show that conservative species, which are the most efficient at conserving their resources (nutrients, water, energy), generally grow faster in forests. Published in Nature, these results, which are available to forest managers, highlight the central role of local conditions in tree growth.
Forests provide numerous ecosystem services: microclimate regulation, preservation of biodiversity, purification of air and water, soil protection, and so on. Together with the oceans, they are one of the two most important carbon sinks, due to their capacity to store carbon in the soil and in tree biomass.
Promoting fast-growing trees could therefore strengthen one of the levers for mitigating climate change. This raises a key question for forest managers: which tree species have the greatest mitigation potential?
INRAE and Bordeaux Sciences Agro have launched a study to identify the characteristics of trees, also known as ‘functional traits’, that favour their growth and thus the sequestration of CO2 in the biomass. To do this, the researchers coordinated an international consortium, involving the ONF and the Centre National de la Propriété Forestière (CNPF), which studied the growth of 223 tree species planted in 160 experimental forests, spread across different regions of the world (Western Europe, United States, Brazil, Ethiopia, Cameroon, South-East Asia, etc.), and representative of all the major forest biomes.
The current theory: acquisitive species grow fast
Previous work had shown that under controlled conditions (often greenhouse experiments) species capable of efficiently acquiring resources (light, water, nutrients) generally grow quickly (e.g. maples, poplars, pedunculate oak, sessile oak, etc.). These acquisitive species have characteristics linked to maximising resource extraction (large specific leaf area, long specific root length) and a strong capacity to transform these resources into biomass (high maximum photosynthetic capacity, high nitrogen concentration in the leaves). Conversely, species that are more efficient at conserving their internal resources (nutrients, water, energy) than at extracting external resources are known as conservatives (e.g. fir, downy oak, holm oak, etc.), and are assumed to grow more slowly.
New: conservative species grow faster in forests
However, under real conditions, in boreal and temperate forests, researchers have shown that conservative species generally grow faster than acquisitive species. This result can be explained by the fact that these forests are generally located in areas where growing conditions are unfavourable (low soil fertility, cold or dry climate), giving an advantage to conservative species that are more resistant to stress and more frugal in their management of limited resources. In tropical rainforests, where the climate is potentially more favourable to plant growth, the two types of tree species do not differ on average.
The central role of the choice of species in relation to the local climate and soil
Over and above the general trends on the scale of the major biomes, the researchers have highlighted the decisive role played by local conditions. There are situations where growth conditions are sufficiently favourable for acquisitive species to grow faster than conservative ones. The key, then, lies in the suitability of the species to the environment in which it is established. In favourable climates and fertile soils, acquisitive species such as maples and poplars will grow faster and therefore fix more carbon than conservative species such as holm oaks, downy oaks and many pines. Conversely, in unfavourable climates and on poor soils, it is the conservative species that have the best potential for accumulating carbon in the biomass. This recent study is a contribution to the range of tools that forest managers can use to help mitigate climate change.
The major terrestrial biomes represent vast geographical areas characterised by climatic conditions and the species they host: tundra, desert, savannah, temperate forest, tropical forest, coniferous forest, grassland and the Mediterranean biome.
Reference
Augusto L., Borelle R., Boča A. et al. (2025). Widespread slow growth of acquisitive tree species. Nature, DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08692-x
Scientific contacts :
Laurent Augusto – laurent.augusto@inrae.fr
Marie Charru – marie.charru@agro-bordeaux.fr
Soil-Plant-Atmosphere Interaction joint research unit
Agronomy and Environmental Sciences for Agroecosystems (AGROECOSYTEM) and Ecology and Biodiversity of Forest, Grassland and Aquatic Environments (ECODIV) scientific departments
INRAE Nouvelle-Aquitaine-Bordeaux Centre
Press contacts :
INRAE Media and Opinion Department: 01 42 75 91 86 – presse@inrae.fr
Annabelle Decombe – Bordeaux Sciences Agro : 06 17 21 58 14 – annabelle.decombe@agro-bordeaux.fr