Organic carbon stocks and sequestration rates of forest soils in Germany

Abstract

The National Forest Soil Inventory (NFSI) provides the Greenhouse Gas Reporting in Germany with a quantitative assessment of organic carbon (C) stocks and changes in forest soils. Carbon stocks of the organic layer and the mineral topsoil (30 cm) were estimated on the basis of ca. 1.800 plots sampled from 1987 to 1992 and resampled from 2006 to 2008 on a nationwide grid of 8 × 8 km. Organic layer C stock estimates were attributed to surveyed forest stands and CORINE land cover data. Mineral soil C stock estimates were linked with the distribution of dominant soil types according to the Soil Map of Germany (1 : 1 000 000) and subsequently related to the forest area. It appears that the C pool of the organic layer was largely depending on tree species and parent material, whereas the C pool of the mineral soil varied among soil groups. We identified the organic layer C pool as stable although C was significantly sequestered under coniferous forest at lowland sites. The mineral soils, however, sequestered 0.41 Mg C ha−1 yr−1. Carbon pool changes were supposed to depend on stand age and forest transformation as well as an enhanced biomass input. Carbon stock changes were clearly attributed to parent material and soil groups as sandy soils sequestered higher amounts of C, whereas clayey and calcareous soils showed small gains and in some cases even losses of soil C. We further showed that the largest part of the overall sample variance was not explained by fine-earth stock variances, rather by the C concentrations variance. The applied uncertainty analyses in this study link the variability of strata with measurement errors. In accordance to other studies for Central Europe, the results showed that the applied method enabled a reliable nationwide quantification of the soil C pool development for a certain period.

Carbon stocks in tree biomass and soils of German forests

“…Carbon stocks for the organic layer and the mineral soil down to a depth of 30 cm were estimated according to methods presented by Grüneberg et al (2014). Carbon stocks down to 90 cm of the mineral soil were obtained by summing up the individual depths increments.…”

“…3). A study of Grüneberg et al (2014) analyzed data of the NFSI and provided an estimate of carbon stocks in the organic layer of 18.8 ± 0.3 t ha −1 (192 mill. t C) and in the upper 30 cm of the mineral soil 61.8 ± 3.7 t ha while the mineral soil down to a depth of 30 cm stored 55.6 ± 3.4 t C ha −1 (595 mill.…”

Carbon sequestration in soil following afforestation of former agricultural land in the Czech Republic

“…These benefits are often subdivided into three groupsecological forest functions, socio-cultural benefits and forest products, especially wood products (Stenger et al 2009). Ecological forest function comprise prevention of soil erosion, local climate regulation (de Groot et al 2002;Vacek et al 2003), and -gaining in importance nowadays -carbon sequestration (Vanguelova et al 2013;Grüneberg et al 2014;Pukkala 2014;Ahmed et al 2016). Forest ecosystems' potential to accumulate SOC and, therefore, mitigate climate change attracts an increasing number of researchers in the environmental field (Cienciala et al 2008).…”

“…Carbon sequestration is also a political issue with global significance, embodied in international agreements, such as the Climate Convention (UNFCCC -United Nations' *Corresponding author. Jan Cukor, e-mail: cukor@fld.czu.cz Convention on Climate Change) and the Kyoto Protocol (Cienciala et al 2008;Lugato & Berti 2008;Grüneberg et al 2014). The role of forests in the global carbon cycle is thus carbon sequestration from the atmosphere through photosynthesis.…”

“…It is estimated that approximately 30 to 50% of total carbon content in forests is located in soils (Dixon et al 1994;Paul et al 2002;Pan et al 2011;Wiesmeier et al 2013;Grüneberg et al 2014). The amount of accumulated carbon and its distribution in the soil profile is influenced by individual tree species (Augusto et al 2015;Andivia et al 2016).…”