scholarly journals Comparison between Empirical Models and the CBM-CFS3 Carbon Budget Model to Predict Carbon Stocks and Yields in Nova Scotia Forests

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1235
Author(s):  
Jason Heffner ◽  
James Steenberg ◽  
Brigitte Leblon

In response to the global climate crisis, the Nova Scotia Department of Lands and Forestry is using the Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector (CBM-CFS3) and associated methodologies to assess the carbon dynamics of the provincial forestry sector. The CBM-CFS3 bases simulations on a range of studies and national forest inventory plots to predict carbon dynamics using merchantable volume yield curves. Nova Scotia has also maintained thousands of permanent forest sample plots (PSPs) for decades, offering the opportunity to develop empirical, province-specific carbon models. This study used PSP tree measurements and allometric equations to compute plot-level forest carbon models from the PSP dataset and compared their output to that of the CBM-CFS3 model. The PSP-based models were stratified into five forest types and predict the carbon for seven carbon pools as a function of the plot age. Predictions with the PSP- and CBM-CFS3 models were compared to observed PSP data at the plot level and compared against each other at the stand and landscape level. At the plot level, the PSP-derived models predicted carbon closer to the observed data than the CBM-CFS3 model, the extent of over- or under-estimation depending on the carbon pool and forest type. At the stand scale, the CBM-CFS3 model predicted forest carbon to within 3.1–17.6% of the PSP method on average. Differences in predictions between the CBM-CFS3 and PSP models decreased to within 2.4% of the PSP-based models at the landscape level. Thus, the implications of using one method over the other decrease as the prediction scale increases from stand to landscape level, and the implications fluctuate as a function of the forest type and age.

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda S. Heath ◽  
Michael C. Nichols ◽  
James E. Smith ◽  
John R. Mills

2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 1478-1492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey R. McCarney ◽  
Glen W. Armstrong ◽  
Wiktor L. Adamowicz

This study investigates the relationships and trade-offs between forest carbon management, sustained timber yield, and the production of wildlife habitat to provide a more complete picture of the costs and challenges faced by forest managers for a particular case study in Canada’s boreal mixedwood region. The work presented is an extension of a previously published model that analysed the joint production of timber supply and wildlife habitat using a natural disturbance model approach to ecosystem management. The primary contribution of the present study is the detailed incorporation of a carbon budget model into the framework developed previously. Using the Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector, dynamics specific to separate biomass and dead organic matter carbon pools are represented for individual forest cover types. Results indicate the potential for cost thresholds in the joint production of timber supply and carbon sequestration. These thresholds are linked to switch points in the decision between multiple use and specialized land management practices. Cobenefits in the production of carbon and wildlife habitat are shown to depend on ecological parameters, harvest flow regulations, and incentives for timber supply provided by the market.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document