Young forests turn carbon-negative in just 8-13 years after logging
A Swedish study tracking five replanted forests shows that regenerated woodlands can shift from emitting carbon to absorbing it within a decade—far faster than previously assumed. The finding matters for climate accounting and timber companies seeking carbon-neutral forestry models, while revealing that stump removal accelerates this recovery.
Originaltitel: From source to sink: recovery of the carbon balance in young forests
<p>We analyzed ecosystem carbon fluxes from eddy-covariance measurements in five young forests in southernSweden where the previous stand had been harvested by clear-cutting or wind-felled: three stands with Norwayspruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.), one with Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and one with Larch (Larix x eurolepis A.Henry). One of the spruce stands had the stumps harvested, one was fertilized and one without any specialtreatments. These stands returned from positive (sources) to negative (sinks) annual carbon fluxes 8–13 yearsafter disturbance, depending on site productivity and management. This corresponds to approximately 15% ofthe rotation periods at these sites. Extrapolation in combination with chronosequence data suggests thatconventionally regenerated stands reach a neutral carbon balance after approximately 30% of the rotationperiod. The lowest carbon emissions and shortest recovery time was observed in a stand where the stumps of thetrees, in addition to the stems and logging residues, were removed after harvest. This stand not only returned to acarbon sink within this time period but the total carbon gains since disturbance also equaled the total losses afteronly 11 years. These results stress that production stands in southern Sweden are carbon sources during arelatively small part of the rotation period, and that this part can be considerably shortened by measures thatincrease productivity or reduce the amount of woody debris left after disturbance.</p>