Long-term simulations of forest management impacts on carbon storage from loblolly pine plantations in the Southern U.S.

Abstract

Accounting for forest components in carbon accounting systems may be insufficient when substantial amounts of sequestered carbon are harvested and converted to wood products in use and in landfill. The potential of forest offset – in-woods aboveground carbon storage, carbon stored in harvested wood, and energy offset by burning harvested wood – from loblolly pine plantations was evaluated for greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation over a half-century period. The in-woods carbon in well-managed loblolly pine plantations across the South totaled 341 million metric tons. This is equivalent to 20 percent of total energy-consumed GHG emission in the United States in 2006. Present-day carbon storage in southern pine plantations averaged 30.54 Mg•ha^-1 (± 2.54 percent) for in-woods carbon. Annual wood production was 62.1 and 45.9 million green metric tons from pulpwood and sawtimber yield, respectively, with roughly one-fourth of the green weight being carbon. The carbon storage in wood products increased steadily over the half-century projection and showed no sign of leveling off, while the storage in plantations was found to remain constant or increase slightly over time. An additional 11 million metric tons of harvested carbon was used for energy per year on average, equivalent to 25 percent of annual forest-products-industry renewable energy use in U.S.A. Intensified application of fertilizers and herbicide and genetic improvement showed the potential to increase total storage in in-wood and harvested carbon pools as much as 30 percent, and energy offset up to 40 percent. Reducing management intensity greatly increased in-woods carbon storage potential, but eliminated the wood-products carbon sink.

Parent Publication

• Monitoring Across Borders: 2010 Joint Meeting of the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Symposium and the Southern Mensurationists

Citation

Wang, Huei-Jin; Radtke, Philip J.; Prisley, Stephen P. 2012. Long-term simulations of forest management impacts on carbon storage from loblolly pine plantations in the Southern U.S. In: McWilliams, Will; Roesch, Francis A. eds. 2012. Monitoring Across Borders: 2010 Joint Meeting of the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Symposium and the Southern Mensurationists. e-Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-157. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 265-292.