Where did the US forest biomass/carbon go?

Abstract

In Apr. 2012, with the submission of the 1990-2010 US Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the official estimates of aboveground live tree carbon stocks within managed forests of the United States will drop by approximately 14%, compared with last year's inventory. It does not stop there, dead wood carbon stocks will drop by 16%. While our estimates of stocks will decrease, the annual sequestration rate (1990-2010) will show a slight increase, similar to previous submissions. Are these changes an effort to obscure the role of forests in mitigating GHG emissions or biomass available to our forest industries? No. Quite to the contrary, this year-to-year adjustment is the result of the USDA's continuous effort to reduce the uncertainty of US forest biomass/carbon estimates.

Citation

Woodall, Christopher William. 2012. Where did the US forest biomass/carbon go? Journal of Forestry. 110(2): 113-114.