Old growth forests as carbon sinks

The traditional wisdom (see papers here) has been that forests sequester CO2 from the atmosphere during their active growing phases (up to year 80 in most broadleaf species) but once maturity has been reached CO2 is no longer absorbed but simply stored.

Now a paper has been published in Nature (2008) which shows that old growth forests accumulate carbon over the centuries not just the active growth phase.

30% of the planet's surface is covered by old growth forests and this research suggests that between 0.8 and 1.8 billion tonnes of CO2 is stored annually.

These forests were also excluded from calculations in the Kyoto protocol. It is now clear that ancient forest sinks need to be included in carbon balance calculations.

It doesn't mean than ancient forests will save us from catastrophic climate change - it does mean that if we don't protect them properly even more CO2 will be released into the atmosphere than we originally thought.

Woodlands, trees and climate change

If you want to understand the role that trees, woodlands and new plantings can have in combating climate change Mark Broadmeadow is your man. Mark is a research sceintist for the Forestry Commission and has published a number of important papers on this topic.

A list of some of his dowloadable publications can be found here.

I recommend the following:-

Climate Change and British Woodlands - fcin069 [1].pdf

Forests, carbon and climate change: the UK contribution - fcin048.pdf

Climate Change - implications for forestry in Britain

All these papers are downloadable foc from the above link. They are all scientific papers so put aside couple of hours to digest them - you wont regret it though. You will understand the carbon cycle, which tree species are at risk as a result of climate change and why cutting down trees and burning them is carbon neutral. Essential reading if you are into biofuel boilers for example!