Carbon Budget Implications of the Transition from Natural to Managed Disturbance Regimes in Forest Landscapes |
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Authors: | Kurz Werner A Beukema Sarah J Apps Michael J |
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Institution: | (1) ESSA Technologies Ltd., 1765 West 8th Avenue, V6J 5C6 Vancouver, BC, Canada;(2) Canadian Forest Service, Northwest Region, 5320-122nd Street, T6H 3S5 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada |
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Abstract: | Land-use change from an unmanaged to a managed forested landscape in northern forests is associated with a reduction of the
area annually affected by natural disturbances (wildfires and forest insects) and the introduction of harvesting as a new
disturbance. This study examined the impacts of changes in the disturbance regime-the frequency and type of disturbance-on
landscape-level carbon (C) content and fluxes. The Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector was used to assess these
impacts in six representative landscapes (100,000 ha each) with a range of disturbance regimes that are characteristic of
conditions in coastal British Columbia, the interior of British Columbia, and the eastern boreal forest in Canada. The model
was used to simulate ecosystem C fluxes during a period of natural disturbances, a 50-year transition period during which
harvesting replaced natural disturbances, followed by 150 years of harvesting. The initial landscape-level biomass C content
under natural disturbance regimes in the six example landscapes was 22 to 75% of their potential maximum content which is
often used as the reference or baseline case. After 200 years of forest management, the C stored in the landscape plus the
C retained in forest products manufactured from harvested biomass was between 58 and 101% of the landscape C content prior
to the onset of harvesting. Landscape-level ecosystem C content was found to be affected by changes in the disturbance frequency,
the age-dependence of the disturbance probabilities, and the disturbance-specific impacts on ecosystem C content. The results
indicate that using the potential maximum C content of a landscape as the baseline always overestimates the actual C release
due to land use change. A more meaningful procedure would be to assess the actual differences in landscape-level C content
between the natural and the managed disturbance regime. |
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Keywords: | Canada carbon fluxes carbon content harvesting land-use change wild fire |
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