preview

Carbon Sequestration in Forest Ecosystems Essay

Better Essays

Carbon Sequestration in Forest Ecosystems Amid growing concerns about increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, mitigation techniques that reduce levels of greenhouse gases are receiving attention as a possible remedy for climate change. Forest ecosystems play an important role in the global carbon cycle, but there are still questions about how significant of a role they play and how manipulating management plans affects a forested area’s carbon sequestration potential. Various factors such as land-use history, age of a forest stand, and potential feedback processes must all be taken into account when determining if forests are a feasible method of climate change mitigation. The implications of forested areas …show more content…

Given that there are numerous economical and political obstacles in regulating global carbon emissions, methods for enhancing rates of natural carbon sequestration can ideally serve as substitutes for government regulation, but more realistically are only a portion of the solution. Terrestrial carbon sequestration is a process whereby carbon in the form of carbon dioxide is taken from the atmosphere through photosynthesis by plants and converted to biomass in a form that will not be quickly reemitted to the atmosphere (United States Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], 2006). The carbon in the biomass is either in durable form such as wood, which acts as a carbon sink until it is decomposed or used for fuel, or is in vegetative material that can act as a carbon sink in the soil until it decays. A large proportion of carbon found in a forested ecosystem is in the form of soil organic carbon (SOC), which is a combination of plant and animal residues in various stages of decomposition in the soil, while living vegetation accounts for the remaining carbon (Lal, 2004). Turnover times for the various forms of carbon in a forest differ greatly, ranging from some mineralized forms of SOC taking decades to decompose to leaf litter that decays every year, raising into question the effectiveness for long term carbon storage in forests (Lal, 2004). However, ignoring instances where a forest may be a carbon source, in general, forested areas and the management practices associated

Get Access