From Carbon Balance and Management:

Carbon Balance and Management is dedicated to publishing original research related to the understanding of the global carbon cycle, as well as methodologies for its measurement and analysis and reviews of topics within the field. This includes studies of spatial and temporal distributions of carbon pools and fluxes, control and feedback mechanisms of the carbon-climate system and points of intervention for managing the carbon-climate-human system. The journal supports the work of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) by providing governmental and non-governmental organizations with instantaneous access to contemporary knowledge, including paradigm shifts and consensual views.

Quantifying the impact of key factors on the carbon mitigation potential of managed temperate forests

Quantifying the carbon mitigation potential of forests is highly challenging due to the influence of multiple important factors such as forest age and type, climate change and associated natural disturbances, harvest intensities, wood usage patterns, salvage logging practices, and the carbon-intensity of substituted products. Researchers in this paper developed a framework to quantify the impact of these factors through factorial simulation experiments with an ecosystem model at the example of central European (Bavarian) forests, underscoring the need to tailor mitigation strategies to the specific conditions of different forest sites. Curbing emissions reduces the threat of climate change on forests, safeguarding their carbon sink and ecosystem services.

Mind the gap: reconciling tropical forest carbon flux estimates from earth observation and national reporting requires transparency

This research paper uses Brazil as a primary case study, with additional analysis in Indonesia and Malaysia to examine variations in calculating the anthropogenic carbon net flux from land caused by the extent to which approaches consider forest land to be “managed” by humans, and thus contributing to the net anthropogenic flux. The key lessons learned from this study included the important of full transparency in methodologies and data openness.

Effects of climate and plant functional types on forest above-ground biomass accumulation

Forest above-ground biomass (AGB) accumulation is widely considered an important tool for mitigating climate change. However, the general pattern of forest AGB accumulation associated with age and climate gradients across various forest functional types at a global scale have remained unclear. The contrasting responses of AGB accumulation rate to mean annual temperature and precipitation across four forest functional types emphasizes the importance of incorporating the complexity of forest types into the models which are used in planning climate change mitigation.

Modeling land use change and forest carbon stock changes in temperate forests in the United States

Although forests provide the largest terrestrial sink of carbon, these C stocks are threatened by forest land conversion. Land use change has global impacts and is a critical component when studying C fluxes, but it is not always fully considered in C accounting despite being a major contributor to emissions. The results of this study will help policy-makers prioritize forest management activities and land use planning by providing a quantitative framework that can enhance forest health and productivity.

From Annals of Forest Science:

Annals of Forest Science publishes multidisciplinary research devoted to forests and wood in a changing world. The scope covers all relevant disciplines (biology, ecology, economy and social sciences, forestry) at all relevant scales (from organism to landscape). The science published in Annals of Forest Science contributes to the adaptation and resilience of forests to ongoing climate change, helps identify the mitigating role of forests for such changes, and supports the development of a sustainable, circular and inclusive bioeconomy, and in general addresses the challenges forests are facing in the mid to long term. It is one of the journals of the French National Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), a public non-profit research institution.

Forest adaptation and restoration under global change

This editorial introduces a topical collection of the same title illustrating how the preservation of intact forest landscapes, forest adaptation and restoration are needed to prevent the continued global loss of ecosystem services and biodiversity, so that forest landscapes can meet the ecological, economic, and societal challenges due to global change. The paper outlines four lessons to learn for future work on forest adaptation and restoration.

Linking structure and species richness to support forest biodiversity monitoring at large scales

We are currently facing a dramatic loss in biodiversity worldwide and this initiated many monitoring programs aiming at documenting further trends. However, monitoring species diversity directly is very resource demanding, in particular in highly diverse forest ecosystems. Here, authors have analyzed the possible correlation between measurements/indicators of forest structure and species richness of many taxonomic or functional groups over three regions of Germany. Results show the potential to use structural attributes as a surrogate for species richness of most of the analyzed taxonomic and functional groups. This information can be transferred to large-scale forest inventories to support biodiversity monitoring.

Multi-actor perspectives on afforestation and reforestation strategies in Central Europe under climate change

Understanding forest genetic diversity and national legislation on trade and utilization of forest reproductive material (FRM) are key aspects for management and adapting forests to climate change.  Despite concerns about the negative effects of climate change on forests, awareness of the role of genetic diversity in climate change adaptation is limited. Although 80% of the conservation and forest managers surveyed perceive the importance of forest genetic diversity, almost half of them feel unaware of it. 

Find more information about FSC Forest Week here.