Changed thinning regimes may increase carbon stock under climate change: A case study from a Finnish boreal forest

Abstract

A physiological growth and yield model was applied for assessing the effects of forest management and climate change on the carbon (C) stocks in a forest management unit located in Finland. The aim was to outline an appropriate management strategy with regard to C stock in the ecosystem (C in trees and C in soil) and C in harvested timber. Simulations covered 100 years using three climate scenarios (current climate, ECHAM4 and HadCM2), five thinning regimes (based on current forest management recommendations for Finland) and one unthinned. Simulations were undertaken with ground true stand inventory data (1451 hectares) representing Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), Norway spruce (Picea abies) and silver birch (Betula pendula) stands. Regardless of the climate scenario, it was found that shifting from current practices to thinning regimes that allowed higher stocking of trees resulted in an increase of up to 11% in C in the forest ecosystem. It also increased the C in the timber yield by up to 14%. Compared to current climatic conditions, the mean increase over the thinning regimes in the total C stock in the forest ecosystem due to the climate change was a maximum of 1%; but the mean increase in total C in timber yield over thinning regimes was a maximum of 12%.

A Flexible Hybrid Model of Life Cycle Carbon Balance for Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda L.) Management Systems

“…To our knowledge, the current study represents one of the few that incorporated the ex situ C pool into the analysis of thinning effects on carbon sequestration of forest plantations. Garcia-Gonzalo [93], in a similar analysis that included ex situ C pools for mixed coniferous stands in Finland, reported a net reduction between 25 and 33 MgC·ha −1 in trees and a net increase between 30 and 45 MgC·ha −1 in harvested timber. Even though the wood extracted in thinning was primarily pulpwood, which impacted ex situ C sequestration, increased growth of residual trees due to thinning promoted the production of larger tree size classes at final harvest.…”

Belowground Carbon and Nitrogen on a Thinned and Un-Thinned Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest

“…Carbon input to the soil is mainly due to the products of fine-root decomposition [6] to the illuviation of organic compounds from the decomposition of plant residues deposited on the soil [1], and to material incorporated by the movement of the macro and mesofauna [18].…”

“…In the last few decades the scientific community has turned to the study of carbon stocks in many different compartments of tropical forests [1] [2] [3], due to their being an important component of terrestrial carbon. However, the same cannot be said about seasonally dry tropical forest (SDTF) [4] [5] [6], which cover an area of approximately 105.104 km 2 .…”

Carbon stock density in planted versus natural Pinus massoniana forests in sub-tropical China

“…Thinning and fertilization regimes are also common management practices. Thinning regimes increase the carbon stock density in total aboveground biomass (Finkral and Evans 2008;Garcia-Gonzalo et al 2007). Because thinning is a usual management practice, the stand densities of the planted pine forests decrease significantly as the forests develop.…”

“…Lastly, the tree species vary. For example, thinning reduces the carbon stock density in aboveground biomass in P. ponderosa forest (Finkral and Evans 2008), but increases the carbon stock density in P. sylvestris and P. abies forests (Garcia-Gonzalo et al 2007). …”