Deforestation is a global and accelerating threat. But new research shows that tropical forests can recover naturally and remarkably quickly on abandoned lands.

The study, published Thursday in the journal Science, found that under low-intensity use, soil on previously deforested land can recover its fertility in less than a decade. Characteristics such as the layering of plants and trees in a forest, as well as species diversity, came back in about 25 to 60 years.

“I was totally surprised how quickly it went,” said Lourens Poorter, an ecologist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands and lead author on the paper. “These forests can recover very fast and they can do it by themselves.”

Burgeoning secondary forests are good for the climate as well. They are able to sequester more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than established forests; like the voracious food intake of a sprouting teen compared to that of an older adult.

“It does provide a glimmer of hope for this process of tropical reforestation,” said Meg Lowman, a conservation biologist and author of “The Arbornaut: A Life Discovering the Eighth Continent in the Trees Above.” “My only caution is that I don’t think it’s ever a substitute for the importance of saving big trees and old growth forests.”

Older forests ultimately store more carbon dioxide than young forests, and deforestation rereleases those stockpiles, which helps drive climate change. The study found that it took more than a century for the overall biomass of tropical forests — and thus their carbon storage ability — to return fully. The recovery of a forest’s species makeup lasted a similar period.

The longer time frame for the revival of these key benefits is among the reasons that Poorter says maintaining current forest cover is crucial. “First, stop deforestation and conserve old growth forests,” he emphasized. The fact that deforested land can recover “is not a license to kill.”

The answer is yes, and relatively quickly — a phenomenon that Poorter says is due to a number of factors. The subsurface soil, for example, often remains relatively vibrant after deforestation, which enables a faster recovery. The warmth and humidity of the tropics also allow trees to grow extremely fast, with some species climbing more than a dozen feet per year.

And this all happens largely without human intervention, Poorter said. Seeds, roots and stumps embedded in the soil, or the spread of plants from adjacent forests, kick-start the recovery process.

“The influence of humans is relatively minor compared to what nature itself is doing,” he said. “The conditions are that there has to be nearby forests, and the soil can’t be too degraded.”

Although these trends had been previously observed on the local level or in a small number of locations, this paper drew on 77 sites in three continents, comprising 2,275 plots and 226,343 stems. Poorter, who was among the study’s almost 100 authors said, “For the first time, we brought together all these plots from all these different scientists.”