Climate change, Disturbance and Forest Carbon Storage

Seminarium

Many are looking to forests to store more carbon or for biomass fuel to help reduce CO2 emissions to the atmosphere, and much attention has been given to the fact that US forests currently offset about 16% of US fossil fuel carbon emissions. However, much of the current US forest carbon sink results from forest recovery from past land clearing, disturbance and harvesting. Only about 40% of the forest carbon present before European settlement and lost to the atmosphere in land conversion to agriculture or building and fuel has been recovered. Current forest carbon stocks and annual carbon storage are being jeopardized by disturbance promoted by a changing climate. In the Northern Rockies, projected changes in climate will lower the fire rotation from the current 150-300 years to < 30 years and likely substantially lower the carbon stored on the landscape.