Lund and Stanford University researchers find primary forests sequester more carbon than managed forests
In Sweden, the world’s northern forests act as massive carbon vaults, locking away greenhouse gases in spruce, pines, and needle-covered soils. But industrial logging is quickly eroding their ability to mitigate climate change, according to a major new study led by scientists at Lund University and Stanford University. The biggest losses are happening in soils beneath the forest floor.
Working in Sweden, researchers mapped old-growth forests across the country and then measured carbon at more than 200 forest plots over the course of three years. They then combined the field data with decades of national forest and soil carbon inventory data and statistical models. The result is a first-of-its-kind analysis quantifying carbon in vegetation, dead wood, soil, and harvested timber.
Their findings, published March 19 in Science, reveal a stark gap. Undisturbed primary forests store 72% more carbon per acre than the managed forests that are replacing them, typically with single-species plantations. That figure gives managed forests credit for all the carbon stored in goods made from harvested wood, including bioenergy, paper, and building materials. Excluding harvested wood products, primary forests store 83% more carbon per acre.
The difference is 2.7 to 8 times larger than current official estimates. To put that in perspective, restoring carbon storage in Sweden’s managed forests to the level maintained by primary forests would mean keeping nearly 8 billion tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. That’s equivalent to Sweden’s cumulative emissions from burning fossil fuels over the last two centuries and hundreds of times larger than the country’s current annual fossil CO2 emissions.
Category: Research
