Carbon sequestration in managed temperate coniferous forests under climate change
Management of temperate forests has the potential to increase carbon sinks and mitigate climate change. However, those opportunities may be confounded by negative climate change impacts. We therefore need a better understanding of climate change alterations to temperate forest carbon dynamics before...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2016-03-01
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| Series: | Biogeosciences |
| Online Access: | http://www.biogeosciences.net/13/1933/2016/bg-13-1933-2016.pdf |
| Summary: | Management of temperate forests has the potential to increase
carbon sinks and mitigate climate change. However, those opportunities may be
confounded by negative climate change impacts. We therefore need a better
understanding of climate change alterations to temperate forest carbon
dynamics before developing mitigation strategies. The purpose of this project
was to investigate the interactions of species composition, fire, management,
and climate change in the Copper–Pine Creek valley, a temperate coniferous
forest with a wide range of growing conditions. To do so, we used the
LANDIS-II modelling framework including the new Forest Carbon Succession
extension to simulate forest ecosystems under four different productivity
scenarios, with and without climate change effects, until 2050.
Significantly, the new extension allowed us to calculate the net sector
productivity, a carbon accounting metric that integrates aboveground and
belowground carbon dynamics, disturbances, and the eventual fate of forest
products. The model output was validated against literature values. The
results implied that the species optimum growing conditions relative to
current and future conditions strongly influenced future carbon dynamics.
Warmer growing conditions led to increased carbon sinks and storage in the
colder and wetter ecoregions but not necessarily in the others. Climate
change impacts varied among species and site conditions, and this indicates
that both of these components need to be taken into account when considering
climate change mitigation activities and adaptive management. The
introduction of a new carbon indicator, net sector productivity, promises to
be useful in assessing management effectiveness and mitigation activities. |
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| ISSN: | 1726-4170 1726-4189 |