Special Issue "The Role of Forests for Carbon Capture and Storage"

Guest Editor
Dr. Peter N. Beets
New Zealand Forest Research Institute Ltd (trading as Scion), Private Bag 3020, 49 Sala Street, Rotorua, New Zealand
E-Mail: peter.beets@scionresearch.com
Phone: +64 7 343 5577
Fax: +64 7 348 0952
Interests: forest carbon stocks and changes; carbon modelling and validation; forest inventory; remote sensing and lidar; impact of disease on growth; forest production and nutrient cycling; impacts of climate change; land use change and forestry

Guest Editor
Dr. Chris Goulding
Principal Scientist, Scion, New Zealand Forest Research Institute Limited, Private Bag 3020, 49 Sala Street, Rotorua, 3046, New Zealand
E-Mail: Chris.goulding@scionresearch.com
Phone: +64 7 343 5641
Fax: +64 7 348 0952

Dear Colleagues,

Forests are important carbon reservoirs. At the same time, deforestation will release substantial amounts of carbon. The international community is expecting land owners and managers to play a key role in using forests to capture more carbon in the effort to mitigate climate change.

Policy at international and national government levels through, for example, the Kyoto Protocol and REDD+ activities provide motivation.  How successful are policy initiatives and what should be done differently to encourage carbon capture? How well can forest carbon stocks and stock-changes be efficiently assessed, and how valid are the estimates provided at a country level to the UNFCCC or for forest ownerships within a national scheme such as the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme? Fast growing forests can capture carbon quickly but just as easily emit it with short rotations. Natural forests under continuous cover management or conservation can be a permanent carbon sink, but may take a long time to increase the level of growing stock to make a significant difference. What are the modifications to management and harvest planning where Carbon storage is a management objective? What are the potential risks in the future associated with using forests for carbon capture and how are these risks to be mitigated?

We are seeking papers from all around the world on these important questions. This special issue will provide an opportunity to publish the scientific results of research and practice on the past, current and future role of forests to capture and store carbon.

Dr. Peter N. Beets
Dr. Chris Goulding
Guest Editors

Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed Open Access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. For the first couple of issues the Article Processing Charge (APC) will be waived for well-prepared manuscripts. English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.

• carbon reservoir assessment
• deforestation
• permanence of forest sinks
• reference levels
• forest management
• carbon stock changes
• REDD+
• UNFCCC

Title: CO₂ Mitigation Impact of Policy to Purchase Forest Carbon Offsets in the United States
Authors: Prakash Nepal, Peter J. Ince and Kenneth E. Skog
Affiliation: Economics and Statistics Research, USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, One Gifford Pinchot Drive, Madison, WI 53726-2398, USA; E-Mail: pince@fs.fed.us; Tel.: +1-608-231-9364
Abstract: The United States (U.S.) forest sector is considered to have a substantial potential to contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation. This study evaluated GHG mitigation benefits of a hypothetical future carbon offset policy that would pay U.S. forest landowners for storing carbon in forests. A baseline (business-as-usual) scenario without any carbon policy was evaluated against an alternative scenario where timberland area is set aside permanently (100 years) as a carbon reserve, provided that the present value of carbon offset payments is equal to or greater than the present value of timber harvests, and given that an exogenously projected annual “budget” or expenditures for forest carbon offsets is available at federal level. Three hypothetical carbon price levels ($5, $10, and $15 per metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e)), and two annual carbon expenditure levels ($3 billion, $6 billion) were evaluated. Preliminary results with carbon price of $5/tCO₂e and annual carbon expenditure of $3 billion indicated that about 5 million hectares would be purchased and set aside sequestering 3595 Teragram (Tg) of CO₂e over the next 50 years (719 Tg CO₂e annually), suggesting a substantial mitigation potential of U.S. forests through timber set asides. Compared with U.S. carbon emissions at 2009 level (about 6633 Tg), this would mean that the alternative scenario can offset 11% of U.S. annual CO₂ emissions. The present value of cost required to achieve this offset during the overall period averaged $4.6/tCO₂e, reinforcing the view of earlier studies that using forests to mitigate GHGs can be relatively cheaper compared to alternative non-forest sector mitigation strategies. However, results also suggested that such carbon policy would reduce the timberland and timber inventory available for conventional timber products by as much as 36% over the next 50 years suggesting serious economic consequences to the entire forest products sector (a topic we plan to investigate in a subsequent study). The results can serve as useful benchmark information for carbon policy makers interested in CO₂ mitigation through forest sector.
Keywords: forest carbon; carbon expenditure; carbon price; CO₂ mitigation; mitigation cost; present value; set asides

Title: Enhancing Carbon Storage and Capture in Native Forests in Queensland, Australia through Sustainable Use and Management
Authors: Michael Ngugi ¹, David Doley ² and Mark Cant ¹
Affiliations: ¹ Biodiversity and Ecosystem Sciences, DERM, Queensland Herbarium, Mt Coot-tha Road, Toowong, Qld 4066, Australia; E-Mail: michael.ngugi@derm.qld.gov.au
² School of Agriculture and Food Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane Qld 4072, Australia
Abstract: Natural forests in various conditions on crown and private lands form the bulk of forest cover in Australia. The demand to offset carbon emissions has triggered a rapid development of a carbon biosequestration industry that is focused on new plantings. Due to competing landuses, insufficient land is available in the high rainfall areas to sustain this industry. Planting native species in low rainfall areas provides significant risk of failure and promises only slow growth rates and poor financial returns to the industry. Unfortunately current carbon credit rules under REDD do not allow developed nations to claim carbon credits from sustainable management of existing forests. By examining long-term forest monitoring data from native forests in Queensland, Australia we explore storage and capture capacities of native forests. We argue that in the long-term, a sustainable forest management strategy aimed at optimizing durable forest carbon stocks will generate the largest sustained mitigation benefit in response to climate change.

Title: Mechanisms Facilitating High Rates of Carbon Capture and Storage in Tropical Mangrove Forests
Author: Daniel Alongi
Affiliation: Australian Institute of Marine Science, PMB 3, Townsville MC, Townsville 4810, Queensland, Australia; E-Mail: D.Alongi@aims.gov.au
Abstract: Mangrove forests are key habitats located at the interface between land and sea within low latitudes and are a valuable ecological and economic resource. As such, they have a number of physiological and ecological mechanisms to sustain high rates of production and carbon storage. Mangroves have mean rates of net primary productivity equivalent to tropical terrestrial forests. Like other woody plants, roughly 50% of assimilated CO₂ is returned to the atmosphere via tree respiration. The remainder is used to construct and maintain foliage, stem, branches, roots and other tree tissues, but mangroves allocate proportionally more carbon below-ground and have higher below- to above-ground carbon mass ratios than terrestrial trees. Inventories of mangrove ecosystems show that most carbon fixed by the forest and imported from adjacent systems is stored as large pools in the soil and in dead root mass. In comparison with boreal, temperate and tropical upland forests, mangrove forests are among the most carbon-rich biomes, containing an average of 937 t C ha⁻¹. A large pool of live and dead roots below-ground mixed with rich soils reflect numerous adaptations to life in a harsh, saline waterlogged environment, helping to stabilize the ecosystem from tides, waves, winds, and storms. Mangroves facilitate the accumulation of fine particles, fostering rapid rates of sediment accretion (~5 mm yr⁻¹) and subsequent carbon burial (174 g C m⁻² yr⁻¹). Mangroves account for only ~1% (13.5 Gt yr⁻¹) of carbon sequestration by the world’s forests due to their small global area (<140,000 km²). However, as coastal habitats, they account for 14% of carbon sequestration by the global coastal ocean. The potential for significant greenhouse gas emissions if the high per-hectare carbon stocks of mangroves are disturbed is very high. Losses of mangroves lead to dramatic changes in soil chemistry resulting in rapid emission rates of CO₂.