Managing carbon sinks by changing rotation length in European forests

doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2004.03.001

Environmental Science & Policy

Volume 7, Issue 3, June 2004, Pages 205-219

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2004.03.001 Get rights and content

Abstract

Elongation of rotation length is a forest management activity countries may choose to apply under Article 3.4 of the Kyoto Protocol to help them meet their commitments for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. We used the CO2FIX model to analyze how the carbon stocks of trees, soil and wood products depend on rotation length in different European forests. Results predicted that the carbon stock of trees increased in each forest when rotation length was increased, but the carbon stock of soil decreased slightly in German and Finnish Scots pine forests; the carbon stock of wood products also decreased slightly in cases other than the Sitka spruce forest in UK. To estimate the efficiency of increasing rotation length as an Article 3.4 activity, we looked at changes in the carbon stock of trees resulting from a 20-year increase in current rotation lengths. To achieve the largest eligible carbon sink mentioned in Article 3.4 of the Kyoto Protocol, the rotation lengths need to be increased on areas varying from 0.3 to 5.1 Mha depending on the forest. This would in some forests cause 1–6% declines in harvesting possibilities. The possible decreases in the carbon stock of soil indicate that reporting the changes in the carbon stocks of forests under Article 3.4 may require measuring soil carbon.

Introduction

The choice of rotation length (time from the establishment of a forest stand to its final felling) is considered to be an effective forest management activity for controlling the carbon stocks of forests (Cooper, 1983, Liski et al., 2001, Pussinen et al., 2002, Harmon and Marks, 2002). It affects the carbon stocks of both trees and soil and, through the effects on the quantity and the quality of harvested timber, also the carbon stock of wood products. A change in rotation length is also seen as a forest management activity that countries may choose to apply under Article 3.4 of the Kyoto Protocol to help them meet their commitments for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (UNFCCC, 1997, UNFCCC, 2001a, IPCC, 2000).

The carbon stock of trees increases with increasing rotation length but the carbon stocks of soil and wood products do not necessarily (Liski et al., 2001). The decreases in the carbon stocks of soil and wood products would make the practice of increasing rotation length less efficient in sequestering carbon. Any decrease in the soil carbon stock would, in addition, make it necessary to measure changes in the carbon stocks of forests for Article 3.4 the Kyoto Protocol. A country may decide not to account for one or more of the five carbon stocks named, i.e. aboveground biomass, belowground biomass, litter, dead wood, and soil organic matter, only if it can show that the stock is not decreasing (UNFCCC, 2001a). Many countries may wish not to account for changes in soil carbon, because they are expensive and difficult to measure. Model simulations of different forests would help to explore the effects of rotation length on the carbon stocks of forests.

Estimates of the rotation length effects on the carbon stocks of forests are scarce, especially those that account for the dynamics between the different stocks of forest carbon and are comparable between different forests. This lack of knowledge is illustrated, for instance, in the estimates given in the special report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change on Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (IPCC, 2000). The figures given there account only for biomass and are based on a simple assumption that a 15% increase in rotation length increases biomass by 5%. To evaluate the implications of changing rotation length for forest carbon, more thorough analyses are needed.

We studied the efficiency of changing rotation length in managing the carbon stocks of different forests in Europe. Our specific objectives were (1) to quantify the effects of rotation length on the carbon stocks of trees, soil and wood products and (2) to estimate the size of forest areas where rotation lengths need to be changed to accomplish the largest carbon sink eligible under Article 3.4 of the Kyoto Protocol.² We also estimated the effects of the changed rotation lengths on harvest possibilities and considered the implications of the results for the reporting requirements of the sinks under the Kyoto Protocol.

Section snippets

Approach

CO2FIX V 2.0 model was applied to analyse the effects of rotation length in this study (Nabuurs et al., 2002, Masera et al., 2003). CO2FIX is a stand-level bookkeeping model that simulates the stocks and the fluxes of carbon in forests and wood products (Fig. 1). The model consists of a tree module, a soil module and a wood product module, and it operates on an annual time step. We used CO2FIX to calculate average carbon stocks over different rotation lengths. These averages represent

Scots pine forests in Finland

To demonstrate the mechanisms that determine the effects of rotation length on the carbon stocks of forests, we explain the Finnish Scots pine case in detail.

The average carbon stock of trees was the larger the longer was the rotation length (Fig. 2). This was because the annually harvested forest area decreased with increasing rotation length. For example, the average carbon stock of trees was 17 Mg ha⁻¹ or 29% larger when a 110-year rotation length was applied instead of a 70-year length that

Reliability of the results

Reliability of the results of this study depends on, first, how realistically CO2FIX model describes carbon cycling in forests and, second, the parameter values used. We evaluated the overall reliability of our results by comparing them to various measurements.

The growth and yield tables we used were based on a large number of measurements but most of these measurements were old and thus did not account for the recently increased growth rates in European forests (Spiecker et al., 1996). On the

Acknowledgements

This study was partly funded by the European Commission through CASFOR II (ICA4-CT-2001-10100) project. We thank Taru Palosuo and Marcus Lindner for comments and two anonymous reviewers for constructive remarks.

Terhi Kaipainen is a researcher at the European Forest Institute (EFI) and she is also a graduate student at the Faculty of Forestry, University of Joensuu, Finland. Her research focuses on forest sector carbon budget assessment.

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Dr. Jari Liski is currently a senior researcher at the Finnish Environment Institute conducting research on adaptation to global change. From 1998 to 2003 he worked at the European Forest Institute as a researcher and senior researcher. He has a doctor’s degree (agriculture and forestry) in silviculture at the University of Helsinki, Finland (1997).

Ari Pussinen is a senior researcher at the European Forest Institute (EFI). He is specialized in forest scenario modelling.

Dr. Timo Karjalainen is a professor of international forestry, in particular forestry in countries with economies in transition, at the Finnish Forest Research Institute. He has experience on carbon sequestration and forestry research from the early 1990s and he has been involved in the IPCC work, e.g. special report on land use, land-use change and forestry.

¹: Present address: Finnish Environment Institute, P.O. Box 140, FIN-00251 Helsinki, Finland.

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Managing carbon sinks by changing rotation length in European forests

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Approach

Scots pine forests in Finland

Reliability of the results

Acknowledgements

Forest Ecol. Manage.

Forest Ecol. Manage.

Forest Ecol. Manage.

Regional distribution of carbon in German forest soils and its relation to climate change

Z. Angew. Geol.

Carbon storage in managed forests

Can. J. Forest Res.

Effects of silvicultural practices on carbon stores in Douglas-fir-western hemlock forests in the Pacific Northwest, USA: results from a simulation model

Can. J. Forest Res.

Role of wood-based products in absorbing atmospheric carbon

Silva Fennica