How continuous cover forestry can help with carbon sequestration

Forest ecosystems are important global carbon sinks storing about two third of its carbon pool belowground.

Carbon sequestration in forest ecosystems can be markedly enhanced by avoiding clearfellings and securing the soil carbon surplus may be crucial to mitigating climate change.

Clearfellings typically lead to periods of several years when the soils are exposed and large amounts of carbon are released again into the atmosphere.

Recent forest policies havesuggested a greater move of Sweden’s forestry towards Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF), a type of forest management that aims at avoiding clearfellings. Structural complexity of CCF woodlands is likely to be a key driver of carbon sequestration rates. Up to now the synergies of carbon forestry and CCF have not been much explored in the boreal forest.

In this project, we propose to study the relationship between complexity of forest structure and carbonsequestration and to investigate whether the strategy of concentrating carbon sequestration in large trees is better than overall stand optimisation of carbon sequestration.

Our research sites will be located in an advanced field research infrastructures in northern Sweden, the Krycklan Catchment Study.

In addition, our research will provide science-based evidence for refining the management practices of carbon forestry when compared to traditional timber and pulp production in Sweden.