Optimal Forest Management with Carbon Sequestration Credits and Endogenous Fire Risk

Forest and wildland fires are a natural part of ecosystems worldwide, but large fires in particular can cause societal, economic and ecological disruption. Fires are an important source of greenhouse gases and black carbon that can further amplify and accelerate climate change. In recent years, large forest fires in Sweden demonstrate that the issue should also be considered in other parts of Fennoscandia. This final report of the project “Forest fires in Fennoscandia under changing climate and forest cover (IBA ForestFires)” funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, synthesises current knowledge of the occurrence, monitoring, modelling and suppression of forest fires in Fennoscandia. The report also focuses on elaborating the role of forest fires as a source of black carbon (BC) emissions over the Arctic and discussing the importance of international collaboration in tackling forest fires. The report explains the factors regulating fire ignition, spread and intensity in Fennoscandian conditions. It highlights that the climate in Fennoscandia is characterised by large inter-annual variability, which is reflected in forest fire risk. Here, the majority of forest fires are caused by human activities such as careless handling of fire and ignitions related to forest harvesting. In addition to weather and climate, fuel characteristics in forests influence fire ignition, intensity and spread. In the report, long-term fire statistics are presented for Finland, Sweden and the Republic of Karelia. The statistics indicate that the amount of annually burnt forest has decreased in Fennoscandia. However, with the exception of recent large fires in Sweden, during the past 25 years the annually burnt area and number of fires have been fairly stable, which is mainly due to effective fire mitigation. Land surface models were used to investigate how climate change and forest management can influence forest fires in the future. The simulations were conducted using different regional climate models and greenhouse gas emission scenarios. Simulations, extending to 2100, indicate that forest fire risk is likely to increase over the coming decades. The report also highlights that globally, forest fires are a significant source of BC in the Arctic, having adverse health effects and further amplifying climate warming. However, simulations made using an atmospheric dispersion model indicate that the impact of forest fires in Fennoscandia on the environment and air quality is relatively minor and highly seasonal. Efficient forest fire mitigation requires the development of forest fire detection tools including satellites and drones, high spatial resolution modelling of fire risk and fire spreading that account for detailed terrain and weather information. Moreover, increasing the general preparedness and operational efficiency of firefighting is highly important. Forest fires are a large challenge requiring multidisciplinary research and close cooperation between the various administrative operators, e.g. rescue services, weather services, forest organisations and forest owners is required at both the national and international level.

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Effects of forest management on productivity and carbon sequestration: A review and hypothesis

Forest Ecology and Management ◽

10.1016/j.foreco.2015.05.019 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 355 ◽

pp. 124-140 ◽

Cited By ~ 74

Author(s):

A. Noormets ◽

D. Epron ◽

J.C. Domec ◽

S.G. McNulty ◽

T. Fox ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Carbon Sequestration ◽

Forest Management

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Effect of forest management on the formation and stability of phytolith and PhytOC in forest ecosystem

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-573 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Lin Xu ◽

Yongjun Shi ◽

Wanjie Lv ◽

Zhengwen Niu ◽

Ning Yuan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Carbon Sequestration ◽

Forest Management ◽

Forest Ecosystem ◽

Management Practices ◽

Forest Ecosystems ◽

Moso Bamboo ◽

Soil System ◽

Silicon Fertilization ◽

Global Carbon

Forest ecosystem has a high carbon sequestration capacity and plays a crucial role in maintaining global carbon balance and climate change. Phytolith-occluded carbon (PhytOC), a promising long-term biogeochemical carbon sequestration mechanism, has attracted more attentions in the global carbon cycle and the regulation of atmospheric CO2. Therefore, it is of practical significance to investigate the PhytOC accumulation in forest ecosystems. Previous studies have mostly focused on the estimation of the content and storage of PhytOC, while there were still few studies on how the management practices affect the PhytOC content. Here, this study focused on the effects of four management practices (compound fertilization, silicon fertilization, cut and control) on the increase of phytolith and PhytOC in Moso bamboo forests. We found that silicon fertilization had a greater potential to significantly promote the capacity of carbon sequestration in Moso bamboo forests. this finding positively corresponds recent studies that the application of silicon fertilizers (e.g., biochar) increase the Si uptake1 to promote phytolith accumulation and its PhytOC sequestration in the plant-soil system2. Of course, the above-mentioned document2 also had their own shortcomings, i.e., the experimental research time was not long, lacking long-term follow-up trial and the bamboo forest parts were also limited, so that the test results lack certain reliability. We have set up a long-term experiment plot to study the effects of silicon fertilizer on the formation and stability of phytolith and PhytOC in Moso bamboo forests. But anyway, different forest management practices, especially the application of high-efficiency silicon-rich fertilizers1, may be an effective way to increase the phytolith and PhytOC storage in forest ecosystems, and thereby improve the long-term CO2 sequestration capacity of forest ecosystems. Research in this study provides a good "forest plan" to achieve their national voluntary emission reduction commitments and achieves carbon neutrality goals for all over the world.Refences:1Li et al., 2019. Plant and soil, 438(1-2), pp.187-203.2Huang et al., 2020, Science of The Total Environment, 715, p.136846.

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Factors Affecting Spatial Variation in Vegetation Carbon Density in Pinus massoniana Lamb. Forest in Subtropical China

Forests ◽

10.3390/f10100880 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. 880 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Pan ◽

Sun ◽

Ouyang ◽

Zang ◽

Rao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Carbon Sequestration ◽

Forest Management ◽

Spatial Variation ◽

Pinus Massoniana ◽

Moran’S I ◽

Spatial Clusters ◽

Carbon Density ◽

Moran's I ◽

Pinus Massoniana Lamb ◽

Vegetation Carbon

Carbon density is an important indicator of carbon sequestration capacity in forest ecosystems. We investigated the vegetation carbon density of Pinus massoniana Lamb. forest in the Jiangxi Province. Based on plots investigation and measurement of the carbon content of the samples, the influencing factors and spatial variation of vegetation carbon density (including the tree layer, understory vegetation layer and litter layer) were analysed. The results showed that the average vegetation carbon density value of P. massoniana forest was 52 Mg·ha−1. The vegetation carbon density was significantly (p < 0.01) and positively correlated with the stand age, mean annual precipitation, elevation and stand density and negatively correlated with the slope and mean annual temperature. Forest management had a significant impact on vegetation carbon density. To manage P. massoniana forest for carbon sequestration as the primary objective, near-natural forest management theory should be followed, e.g., replanting broadleaf trees. These measures would promote positive succession and improve the vegetation carbon sequestration capacity of forests. The results from the global Moran’s I showed that the vegetation carbon density of P. massoniana forest had significant positive spatial autocorrelation. The results of local Moran’s I showed that the high-high spatial clusters were mainly distributed in the southern, western and eastern parts of the province. The low-low spatial clusters were distributed in the Yushan Mountains and in the northern part of the province. The fitting results of the semivariogram models showed that the spherical model was the best fitting model for vegetation carbon density. The ratio of nugget to sill was 0.45, indicating a moderate spatial correlation of carbon density. The vegetation carbon density based on kriging spatial interpolation was mainly concentrated in the range of 32.5–69.8 Mg·ha−1. The spatial distribution of vegetation carbon density regularity was generally low in the middle region and high in the peripheral region, which was consistent with the terrain characteristics of the study area.

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