Forest cutting and impacts on carbon in the eastern United States.

ABSTRACT: Forest cutting is a major anthropogenic disturbance that affects forest carbon (C) storage and fluxes. Yet its characteristics and impacts on C cycling are poorly understood over large areas. Using recent annualized forest inventory data, we estimated cutting-related loss of live biomass in the eastern United States was 168 Tg C yr(-1) from 2002 to 2010 (with C loss per unit forest area of 1.07 Mg ha(-1) yr(-1)), which is equivalent to 70% of the total U.S. forest C sink or 11% of the national annual CO2 emissions from fossil-fuel combustion over the same period. We further revealed that specific cutting-related C loss varied with cutting intensities, forest types, stand ages, and geographic locations. Our results provide new insights to the characteristics of forest harvesting activities

SUBMITTER: Zhou D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6506451 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature