Schlagwort: afforestation

Emily Warner, Susan C. Cook-Patton, Owen T. Lewis, Nick Brown, Julia Koricheva, Nico Eisenhauer, Olga Ferlian, Dominique Gravel, Jefferson S. Hall, Hervé Jactel, Carolina Mayoral, Céline Meredieu, Christian Messier, Alain Paquette, William C. Parker, Catherine Potvin, Peter B. Reich, Andy Hector IN: Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 6, https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2023.1226514

To determine whether diversification of plantations would enhance aboveground carbon storage, the authors systematically reviewed over 11,360 publications, and acquired data from a global network of tree diversity experiments. They compiled a maximum dataset of 79 monoculture to mixed comparisons from 21 sites with all variables needed for a meta-analysis. The authors assessed aboveground carbon stocks in mixed-species planted forests vs. (a) the average of monocultures, (b) the best monoculture, and (c) commercial species monocultures, and examined potential mechanisms driving differences in carbon stocks between mixtures and monocultures.

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Miko U.F. Kirschbaum, Annette L. Cowie, Josep Peñuelas, Pete Smith, Richard T. Conant, Rowan F. Sage, Miguel Brandão, M. Francesca Cotrufo, Yiqi Luo, Danielle A. Way, Sharon A. Robinson IN: Science of The Total Environment 909, 168479, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168479

Tree plantings may be beneficial or detrimental for mitigating climate-change impacts, but the range of possibilities makes generalisations difficult. Their net benefit depends on many factors that differ between specific circumstances. One can, therefore, neither uncritically endorse tree planting everywhere, nor condemn it as counter-productive. The author´s aim is to provide key information to enable appropriate assessments to be made under specific circumstances. They conclude their discussion by providing a step-by-step guide for assessing the merit of tree plantings under specific circumstances.

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Emma Cox, Thomas M. Beckley, Megan de Graaf IN: Environmental Reviews, https://doi.org/10.1139/er-2022-0097

Forests contain substantial carbon stores, including above and below ground, living and non-living biomass. Different management regimes produce different outcomes related to stored and sequestered carbon in forests. The geographic focus of this paper is the Wabanaki-Acadian Forest of the Maritime Provinces of Canada (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island). This manuscript reviews literature to evaluate the carbon impacts of (1) intensive forest management for fiber products, (2) unharvested (or conservation) forest, and (3) climate-focused, ecological forestry.

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Nicola Stevens, William J. Bond IN: Trends in Ecology & Evolution, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2023.09.015

Afforesting grassy systems for carbon gain using flammable plantation trees could shift the fire regime from lower intensity grass-fuelled fires to high-intensity crown fires. Future changes in climate will worsen this. The authors highlight the fire risk of trees planted for carbon and costs of fire protection using African examples.

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Jesús Aguirre-Gutiérrez, Nicola Stevens, Erika Berenguer IN: Trends in Ecology and Evolution, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2023.08.012

Land-based carbon sequestration projects, such as tree planting, are a prominent strategy to offset carbon emissions. However, we risk reducing natural ecosystems to one metric – carbon. Emphasis on restoring ecosystems to balance ecosystem services, biodiversity conservation, and carbon sequestration is a more appropriate strategy to protect their functioning.

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Yuanyuan Yi, Jintao Xu IN: China Economic Journal, 16, 2, https://doi.org/10.1080/17538963.2023.2244277

The authors show the cost-effectiveness of using forests as Nature-based Solutions pathways that offset carbon dioxide (CO₂). Afforestation and reforestation expand forest cover, sustainable forest management increases forest productivity, and substituting carbon-intensive materials with wood products avoids the CO₂ emitted in the production processes of these materials.

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