5: Maintenance of forest contribution to global carbon cycles

Forests are renewable and one of the largest terrestrial reservoirs of biomass and soil carbon. They have an important role in global carbon cycles as sinks and sources of carbon. Carbon stocks in forests include above ground biomass, below ground biomass, dead and decaying organic matter and soil carbon. Carbon is also stored in wood products. Global climate change could have significant impacts on the structure, distribution, productivity, and health of temperate and boreal forests as well as impacts on forest carbon stocks and fluxes, and the prevalence of forest fires, disease and insect outbreaks, and storm damages.

Forest management practices also affect the carbon cycle and fluxes. Deforestation has a negative impact, but management activities that maintain and enhance the carbon stored in forests and forest products over the medium to long term can make a positive contribution to mitigating atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. In addition, biomass from forests can be used as a substitute for fossil fuels thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Associated Indicators

Days over 90 degrees Fahrenheit (F)

Evaluate urban areas that have higher percent of days over 90 degrees that can contribute to urban heat islands. Tree canopies in urban settings provide shade and reduce air temperatures considerably. The number of days over 90 degrees is one way of measuring potentially harmful heat in urban settings that can lead to unhealthy air quality and a host of health ailments in sensitive groups.

Ecological Condition: Carbon Storage in Forests

This indicator refers to the amount of carbon stored in forest plants and soils. Carbon storage is an important part of the global carbon cycle and increasing carbon storage in forests has the potential to reduce climate change effects from anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases.

Maintenance of Forest Contribution to Global Carbon Cycles: Change in forest carbon pools

Forest carbon is cycled through and stored in soil and above-ground vegetation. Carbon stocks or pools can increase in response to tree growth and vegetation decay into the soil and decrease in response to logging, oxidation of dead material and fire. One way that societies would like to mitigate the production of carbon-containing gases is through increased storage in forest carbon pools.

Maintenance of Forest Contribution to Global Carbon Cycles: Forest ecosystem biomass

Biomass is the organic mass of something. Forest biomass is the total organic mass of an area. Net increase in biomass will increase with plant growth, as long as growth exceeds loss of material due to oxidation (e.g., during fire) and extraction. Many animals and plants depend on forest biomass as sources of food and habitat structure.

Shift in Extent of Forest Tree Species

Evaluate the likely shift in distributions of dominant tree species, due to projected climate changes. This would highlight areas of habitats apt to be strongly impacted by short and long-term changes, and at risk of conversion to other vegetation types, thus affecting the local and regional species composition and biodiversity.

Snow Pack – April 1st (percent of normal)

Evaluate water availability from snow pack. April 1st is considered to be the peak of snow accumulation and can be used as a benchmark. By comparing the April 1st snowpack from the current year against the historic average the indicator can be used to measure if the peak snow pack for the given reporting period is above or below the historic average. This gives an indication of future water supply and seasonable water availability; potential effects on forest vegetation.