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Forests
Special Issues
The Connection of Forest Dynamics and Carbon Accumulation
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The Connection of Forest Dynamics and Carbon Accumulation

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 June 2019)

Special Issue Editors

Dr. John W. Coulston

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Blacksburg, VA 24091, USA
Dr. Grant M. Domke

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Globally, forests are recognized as a key asset for mitigating CO2 emissions. However, forest carbon sequestration and accumulation are influenced by forest dynamics. Within forests, biological, environmental, and management forces drive disturbance and succession, which ultimately shape and change forests, from local to global scales, over a range of temporal scales. The continuous shaping and changing of forests influence sequestration of carbon in live biomass and the accumulation and loss of carbon in dead organic matter and soil. Disturbances, such as fire, insect and disease outbreaks, wind events, and forest management activities, can have immediate impacts on forests, carbon sequestration, and accumulation. Complexity arises because carbon in forests can be transferred from live biomass to dead organic matter and soil carbon pools in response to disturbances which indicates that disturbance may not cause a complete emission but rather some loss of carbon as well as lateral transfer of carbon among live, dead organic matter, and soil carbon pools. Further, current and potential future shifts in climate and management practices influence both disturbance and succession suggesting that the current relationship between forest dynamics and carbon sequestration and storage may change in the future. To understand the carbon consequences of current and anticipated future changes a firm understanding of the relationship between forest dynamics, carbon sequestration, and carbon accumulation is needed. We encourage studies from all fields, including remote sensing applications, inventory approaches, modeling and projection techniques, and empirical approaches, to contribute to this special issue in order to promote a more complete understanding of the connection between forest dynamics, carbon sequestration, and carbon accumulation.

Dr. John W. Coulston
Dr. Grant M. Domke
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short 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 thoroughly refereed through a single-blind 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 monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Disturbances
  • Carbon accumulation
  • Carbon sequestration
  • Forest management
  • Post-disturbance regeneration
  • Climate change
  • Forest carbon pools
  • Forest carbon projections
  • Attribution

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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12 pages, 2552 KiB  
Article
Contrasting Development of Canopy Structure and Primary Production in Planted and Naturally Regenerated Red Pine Forests
by Laura J. Hickey, Jeff Atkins, Robert T. Fahey, Mark R. Kreider, Shea B. Wales and Christopher M. Gough
Forests 2019, 10(7), 566; https://doi.org/10.3390/f10070566 - 8 Jul 2019
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4770
Abstract
Globally, planted forests are rapidly replacing naturally regenerated stands but the implications for canopy structure, carbon (C) storage, and the linkages between the two are unclear. We investigated the successional dynamics, interlinkages and mechanistic relationships between wood net primary production (NPPw) [...] Read more.
Globally, planted forests are rapidly replacing naturally regenerated stands but the implications for canopy structure, carbon (C) storage, and the linkages between the two are unclear. We investigated the successional dynamics, interlinkages and mechanistic relationships between wood net primary production (NPPw) and canopy structure in planted and naturally regenerated red pine (Pinus resinosa Sol. ex Aiton) stands spanning ≥ 45 years of development. We focused our canopy structural analysis on leaf area index (LAI) and a spatially integrative, terrestrial LiDAR-based complexity measure, canopy rugosity, which is positively correlated with NPPw in several naturally regenerated forests, but which has not been investigated in planted stands. We estimated stand NPPw using a dendrochronological approach and examined whether canopy rugosity relates to light absorption and light–use efficiency. We found that canopy rugosity increased similarly with age in planted and naturally regenerated stands, despite differences in other structural features including LAI and stem density. However, the relationship between canopy rugosity and NPPw was negative in planted and not significant in naturally regenerated stands, indicating structural complexity is not a globally positive driver of NPPw. Underlying the negative NPPw-canopy rugosity relationship in planted stands was a corresponding decline in light-use efficiency, which peaked in the youngest, densely stocked stand with high LAI and low structural complexity. Even with significant differences in the developmental trajectories of canopy structure, NPPw, and light use, planted and naturally regenerated stands stored similar amounts of C in wood over a 45-year period. We conclude that widespread increases in planted forests are likely to affect age-related patterns in canopy structure and NPPw, but planted and naturally regenerated forests may function as comparable long-term C sinks via different structural and mechanistic pathways. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Connection of Forest Dynamics and Carbon Accumulation)
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11 pages, 2768 KiB  
Article
The Stability of Mean Wood Specific Gravity across Stand Age in US Forests Despite Species Turnover
by Sean P. Healey and James Menlove
Forests 2019, 10(2), 114; https://doi.org/10.3390/f10020114 - 31 Jan 2019
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3419
Abstract
Research Highlights: Estimates using measurements from a sample of approximately 132,000 field plots imply that while the species composition of US forests varies substantially across different age groups, the specific gravity of wood in those forests does not. This suggests that models using [...] Read more.
Research Highlights: Estimates using measurements from a sample of approximately 132,000 field plots imply that while the species composition of US forests varies substantially across different age groups, the specific gravity of wood in those forests does not. This suggests that models using increasingly accurate spaceborne measurements of tree size to model forest biomass do not need to consider stand age as a covariate, greatly reducing model complexity and calibration data requirements. Background and Objectives: Upcoming lidar and radar platforms will give us unprecedented information about how big the trees around the world are. To estimate biomass from these measurements, one must know if tall trees in young stands have the same biomass density as trees of equal size in older stands. Conventional succession theory suggests that fast-growing pioneers often have lower wood (and biomass) density than the species that eventually dominate older stands. Materials and Methods: We used a nationally consistent database of field measurements to analyze patterns of both wood specific gravity (WSG) across age groups in the United States and changes of species composition that would explain any shifts in WSG. Results: Shifts in species composition were observed across 12 different ecological divisions within the US, reflecting both successional processes and management history impacts. However, steady increases in WSG with age were not observed, and WSG differences were much larger across ecosystems than across within-ecosystem age groups. Conclusions: With no strong evidence that age is important in specifying how much biomass to ascribe to trees of a particular size, field data collection can focus on acquiring reference data in poorly sampled ecosystems instead of expanding existing samples to include a range of ages for each level of canopy height. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Connection of Forest Dynamics and Carbon Accumulation)
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