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Biomass Chronosequences of United States Forests: Implications for Carbon Storage and Forest Management

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Old-Growth Forests

Part of the book series: Ecological Studies ((ECOLSTUD,volume 207))

Abstract

A variety of mechanisms have been identified that may result in late-successional declines in forest biomass, including synchronous mortality of even-aged early-successional cohorts, increased susceptibility of mature forests to wind or insect damage, and, in some systems, reduced stature of late-successional species. We used data from the United States (US) Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program, and a literature database on old-growth biomass, to quantify late-successional biomass trajectories in different US forest types. Our results suggest that late-successional biomass declines are rare in US forests. Thus, in most cases, there is no conflict between maximizing carbon storage in forest biomass and protecting or restoring old-growth forests.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://srsfia2.fs.fed.us/publicweb/statistics_band/stat_documents.htm

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Acknowledgments

We thank Richard Birdsey for helpful comments on an earlier draft, Drew Purves for useful discussions about forest dynamics and FIA data, and Mark Harmon, Erica Smithwick, and Geoffrey Parker for their assistance in locating and interpreting literature data.

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  1. Princeton University, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA

    Jeremy W. Lichstein, Henry S. Horn & Stephen W. Pacala

  2. Organismic Biogeochemistry Group, Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry, Hans-Knöll-Straße 10,, 07745, Jena, Germany

    Christian Wirth

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  1. Jeremy W. Lichstein
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Correspondence to Jeremy W. Lichstein .

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    Lichstein, J.W., Wirth, C., Horn, H.S., Pacala, S.W. (2009). Biomass Chronosequences of United States Forests: Implications for Carbon Storage and Forest Management. In: Wirth, C., Gleixner, G., Heimann, M. (eds) Old-Growth Forests. Ecological Studies, vol 207. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-92706-8_14

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