Reducing CO₂ emissions by managing for sudden oak death...is it possible?

Abstract

Forest CO₂ emissions, which have recently become a more regular concern in forest management, can radically increase following pest and disease outbreaks. We inventoried trees in a stand adjacent to an infested area in northern Humboldt County, California, and used a stand-level dynamic disease model to forecast Phythophthora ramorum-caused tanoak mortality with and without a proposed treatment to mitigate disease spread and impacts. Using forest growth simulations employing model-predicted mortality rates, a proposed treatment that removes California bay laurel and reduces tanoak stem density results in a substantial increase in the forecasted basal area of tanoak retained after 100 years, along with an increase of up to about 100% in the amount of CO₂ emission equivalents stored as carbon in live trees. While the magnitude of treatment benefit varies depending on how parameters are applied in the disease model and growth simulator, all of the scenarios we attempted resulted in net benefits to retention of larger tanoak and carbon storage.

Parent Publication

• Proceedings of the sudden oak death sixth science symposium

Citation

Twieg, Brendan; Valachovic, Yana; Cobb, Richard; Stark, Dan. 2017. Reducing CO₂ emissions by managing for sudden oak death...is it possible? In: Frankel, Susan J.; Harrell, Katharine M., tech. coords. Proceedings of the sudden oak death sixth science symposium. Gen. Tech. Rep. GTR-PSW-255. Albany, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station: 19-22.