Two Sets of Initial Conditions on Boreal Forest Carbon Storage Economics

Two sets of initial conditions are used in the investigation of capital return rate and carbon storage in boreal forests. Firstly, a growth model is applied in young stands as early as the inventory-based model is applicable. Secondly, the growth model is applied to observed wooded stands. Four sets of thinning schedules are investigated in either case. First, the capital return rate is aspired without any restriction. Second, the number of thinnings is restricted to at most one. Third, thinnings are restricted to the removal of only trees thicker than 237 mm. Fourth, commercial thinnings are omitted. The two sets of initial conditions yield similar results. The capital return rate is a weak function of rotation age, which results in variability in the optimal number of thinnings. Reducing the number of thinnings to one increases timber stock but induces a capital return rate deficiency. The deficiency per excess volume unit is smaller if the severity of any thinning is restricted by the removal of large trees only. Omission of thinnings best applies to spruce-dominated stands with stem count less than 2000/ha. Restricted thinning intensity applies to deciduous stands and dense pine stands. The albedo effect increases the benefits of restricted thinnings and increased clearcuttings instead of contradicting the carbon storage.

Signatures of Wetland Impact: Spatial Distribution of Forest Aboveground Biomass in Tumen River Basin

The Tumen River Basin, located in the cross-border region of China, North Korea, and Russia, constitutes an important ecological barrier in China. Forest here is mainly distributed around wetland, with the distribution of wetland having the potential to regulate regional forest carbon storage. However, the spatially explicit map of forest aboveground biomass (AGB) and potential impact of drivers, i.e., wetland distribution and climate, is still lacking. We thus use a deep neural network and multi-source remote sensing data to quantify forest AGB in the Tumen River Basin. Our results show the mean forest AGB is 103.43 Mg ha−1, with divergent spatial variation along its distance to wetland. The results of correlation analysis showed that with sufficient soil moisture supply, temperature dominant spatial variation of forest aboveground biomass. Noted that using the space for time substitution, we find when wetland decreased by less than 11.1%, the forest AGB decreased by more than 8%. Our result highlight the signatures of wetland impact on its nearby forest carbon storage, and urge the wetland protection, especially under the warming and drying future.

Two Sets of Initial Conditions on Boreal Forest Carbon Storage Economics

Two sets of initial conditions are used in the investigation of capital return rate and carbon storage in boreal forests. Firstly, a growth model is applied in young stands as early as the inventory-based model is applicable. Secondly, the growth model is applied to observed wooded stands. Four sets of thinning schedules are investigated in either case. First, the capital return rate is aspired without any restriction. Second, the number of thinnings is restricted to at most one. Third, thinnings are restricted to the removal of only trees thicker than 237 mm. Fourth, commercial thinnings are omitted. The two sets of initial conditions yield similar results. The capital return rate is a weak function of rotation age, which results in variability in the optimal number of thinnings. Reducing the number of thinnings to one increases timber stock but induces a capital return rate deficiency. The deficiency per excess volume unit is smaller if the severity of any thinning is restricted by the removal of large trees only. Omission of thinnings best applies to spruce-dominated stands with stem count less than 2000/ha. Restricted thinning intensity applies to deciduous stands and dense pine stands.

Spatial heterogeneity in forest carbon storage affects priorities for reforestation

Reforestation is an important strategy for nature-based climate solutions and identifying carbon storage potential of different locations is critical to its success. Applying average carbon values from forest inventories ignores the spatial heterogeneity in forest carbon and the effects of forest edges on carbon storage degradation. Here we show how spatially-explicit, predictive carbon modeling, that leverages satellite, social and biogeophysical datasets, can be used to identify more efficient restoration opportunities for climate mitigation than area-based carbon stock averages. Accounting for regeneration of forest edges, in addition to reforestation, boosts estimates of potential carbon gains by more than 20%. The total potential carbon gain that could be achieved through reforestation at the level indicated by the Bonn Challenge (350Mha) is 51 Gt CO2-eq, but the "missing carbon" in our current forests accounts for 64.6 Gt CO2-eq globally; the greatest potential carbon gains are found in areas of high fragmentation.

Commercial Forest Carbon Protocol Over-credit Bias Delimited by Zero-threshold Carbon Accounting

Despite the use of commercial forest carbon protocols (CFCPs) for more than two decades, claiming ~566 MMtCO2e and a market value of ~USD $15.7 billion, comparative analysis of CFCP methodology and offset results is limited. In this study, five widely used biometric-based CFCPs are characterized, and common characteristics and differences are identified. CFCP claims of net forest carbon sequestration are compared with results of directly measured CO2 by eddy covariance, a meteorological method integrating gross vertical fluxes of forest and soil carbon, and the only alternative non-biometric source of net forest carbon sequestration data available. We show here that CFCPs share a structural feature delimiting forest carbon values by zero-threshold carbon accounting (gC m-2 ≤ 0), a pattern opposite to natural emissions of forest CO2 exchange based on direct measurement and a fundamental biological constraint on net forest carbon storage (i.e., soil efflux, ecosystem respiration). Exclusion of forest CO2 sources to the atmosphere precludes net carbon accounting, resulting in unavoidable over-crediting of CFCP project offsets. CFCP carbon results are significantly different from global forest CO2 net ecosystem exchange population results (FluxNet2015 gC m-2) at the 95% to 99.99% confidence levels, inferring an annual median error of ~247% (gC m-2), consistent with over-crediting. Direct CO2 measurement provides an urgently needed alternative method for commercial forest carbon products that has the potential to harmonize global markets and catalyze the role of forests in managing climate change through nature-based solutions.

Trilemma of Nordic–Baltic Forestry—How to Implement UN Sustainable Development Goals

Forests are the dominant land cover in Nordic–Baltic countries, and forestry, the management of forests for improved ecosystem-service (ES) delivery, is an important contributor to sustainability. Forests and forestry support multiple United Nations Sustainability Goals (UN SDGs) and a number of EU policies, and can address conflicting environmental goals. Forests provide multiple ecosystem services and natural solutions, including wood and fibre production, food, clear and clean water and air, animal and plant habitats, soil formation, aesthetics, and cultural and social services. Carbon sequestered by growing trees is a key factor in the envisaged transition from a fossil-based to a biobased economy. Here, we highlight the possibilities of forest-based solutions to mitigate current and emerging societal challenges. We discuss forestry effects on forest ecosystems, focusing on the optimisation of ES delivery and the fulfilment of UN SDGs while counteracting unwanted effects. In particular, we highlight the trilemma of (i) increasing wood production to substitute raw fossil materials, (ii) increasing forest carbon storage capacity, and (iii) improving forest biodiversity and other ES delivery.

Commercial Forest Carbon Protocol Over-Credit Bias Delimited by Zero-Threshold Carbon Accounting

Despite the use of commercial forest carbon protocols (CFCPs) for more than two decades, claiming ~566 MMtCO2e and a market value of ~USD $15.7 billion, comparative analysis of CFCP methodology and offset results is limited. In this study, five widely used biometric-based CFCPs were characterized, and common characteristics and differences were identified. CFCP claims of net forest carbon sequestration are compared with results of directly measured CO2 by eddy covariance, a meteorological method integrating gross vertical fluxes of forest and soil carbon, and the only alternative non-biometric source of net forest carbon sequestration data available. We show here that CFCPs share a structural feature delimiting forest carbon values by zero-threshold carbon accounting (gC m-2 ≤ 0), a pattern opposite to natural emissions of forest CO2 exchange based on direct measurement and a fundamental biological constraint on net forest carbon storage (i.e., soil efflux, ecosystem respiration). Exclusion of forest CO2 sources to the atmosphere precludes net carbon accounting, resulting in unavoidable over-crediting of CFCP offsets. CFCP carbon results are significantly different from global forest CO2 net ecosystem exchange population results (FluxNet2015 gC m-2) at the 95% to 99.99% confidence levels, inferring an annual median error of ~247% (gC m-2), also consistent with over-crediting. Direct CO2 measurement provides an alternative method for commercial forest carbon products, has the potential to harmonize global markets, and catalyze the role of forests in managing climate change through nature-based solutions.

Efficient, Sustainable, and Multifunctional Carbon Offsetting to Boost Forest Management: A Comparative Case Study

Research highlights: Funding forest management with subsidies from carbon offsetters is a well-documented mechanism in tropical regions. This article provides complementary insights into the use of voluntary offset contracts in temperate forests. Background and objectives: The mitigation of greenhouse emissions has become a major global issue, leading to changes in forest management to increase the capacity of forests to store carbon. This can lead to conflicts of use with other forest ecosystem services such as timber production or biodiversity conservation. Our main goal is to describe collective actions to fund carbon-oriented forestry with subsidies from carbon offsetters and to analyze how their governance and functioning prevent conflicts pertaining to multi-functionality. Materials and methods: We assembled an interdisciplinary research team comprising two ecologists, a social scientist, and an economist. Drawing on a conceptual framework of ecosystem services, social interdependencies, and collective action, we based our qualitative analysis on semi-structured interviews from two French case studies. Results: Carbon-oriented intermediary forest organizations offer offset contracts to private firms and public bodies. Communication is geared toward the mitigation outcomes of the contracts as well as their beneficial side effects in providing the ecosystem services of interest to the offsetters. Subsidies then act as a financial lever to fund carbon-oriented forestry operations. Scientific committees and reporting methodologies serve as environmental, social, and economic safeguards. Conclusions: These new intermediary forest organizations use efficient forest operations and evaluation methodologies to improve forest carbon storage. Their main innovation lies in their collective governance rooted in regional forest social-ecological systems. Their consideration of multi-functionality and socioeconomic issues can be seen as an obstacle to rapid development, but they ensure sustainability and avoid conflicts between producers and beneficiaries of forest ecosystem services. Attention must be paid to interactions with broader spatial and temporal carbon policies.

The decline of mammal functional and evolutionary diversity worldwide

Biodiversity is declining worldwide. Because species interact with one another and with their environment, losses of particular organisms alter the function of ecosystems. Our understanding of the global rates and specific causes of functional decline remains limited, however. Species losses also reduce the cumulative amount of extant evolutionary history (“phylogenetic diversity” [PD]) in communities—our biodiversity heritage. Here we provide a global assessment of how each known anthropogenic threat is driving declines in functional diversity (FD) and PD, using terrestrial mammals as a case study. We find that habitat loss and harvest (e.g., legal hunting, poaching, snaring) are by far the biggest drivers of ongoing FD and PD loss. Declines in FD in high-biodiversity countries, particularly in Southeast Asia and South America, are greater than would be expected if species losses were random with respect to ecological function. Among functional guilds, herbivores are disproportionately likely to be declining from harvest, with important implications for plant communities and nutrient cycling. Frugivores are particularly likely to be declining from both harvest and habitat loss, with potential ramifications for seed dispersal and even forest carbon storage. Globally, phylogenetically unique species do not have an elevated risk of decline, but in areas such as Australia and parts of Southeast Asia, both habitat loss and harvest are biased toward phylogenetically unique species. Enhanced conservation efforts, including a renewed focus on harvest sustainability, are urgently needed to prevent the deterioration of ecosystem function, especially in the South American and equatorial Asian tropics.