Forest Management, Engineering, and Operations

Abstract

9Forests represent a major global C sink, and forest management strategies that maximize carbon storage offer one avenue for mitigating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. Our understanding of relationships between forest management, productivity, carbon storage, and stand age, however, is limited. We established research plots in a chronosequence of thinned and unmanaged red pine stands in northern Minnesota to study patterns of carbon storage, and the major fluxes that influence carbon sequestration. We completed an inventory of all major C pools across a chronosequence of 57 red pine stands ages 9-306 years on the Chippewa National Forest in the fall of 2009. Results indicate total ecosystem C pools increase as red pine stands age for at least 150 years, and on-site C storage in thinned stands appears similar to unmanaged stands of comparable ages, despite different age-related trends in the live tree and forest floor pools. Thinned stands may have the potential to store more C than unmanaged stands in old age when C removed during harvesting is added into the total ecosystem C pool.