1
Increased early growth rates decrease longevities of conifers in subalpine forests.
Oikos. 2009; 118:1130-8
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21 Mar 2012
New Finding
DOI: 10.3410/f.14204957.15721057
The authors of this paper put their finger on one of the most common misconceptions in the public carbon (C) cycle debate, namely the assumption that faster tree growth (for whatever reason) enhances C sequestration. This paper nicely evidences the opposite. The faster trees grow, the less likely they...Continue reading
The authors of this paper put their finger on one of the most common misconceptions in the public carbon (C) cycle debate, namely the assumption that faster tree growth (for whatever reason) enhances C sequestration. This paper nicely evidences the opposite. The faster trees grow, the less likely they will become very old; hence, the shorter the mean residence time of C in their trunks will be.
Throughout the global change debate and in many scientific works it has been assumed that the rate of tree growth is a measure of C sequestration. So, when trees grow faster, a common but fatally wrong assumption is that there is greater C sequestration away from the atmosphere. This paper reminds us that the life expectancy of a tree is shorter if it grows fast, and that it is the pool size of C in a forest rather than the speed of C cycling through that pool that matters in terms of mitigating atmospheric CO2 enrichment. The paper shows that trunks that grew faster in their initial 50 years of life will be more likely to face earlier mortality. This insight is not new as such, but the evidence shown here is a novel, particularly convincing case. The patterns reported match knowledge from plantation forestry that operates at high productivity but low mean C stocking across the landscape, and it holds for the Amazonian forest, which shows a smaller biomass C pool in its most vigorous parts and greater C stocks in the less productive parts {1}.
Throughout the global change debate and in many scientific works it has been assumed that the rate of tree growth is a measure of C sequestration. So, when trees grow faster, a common but fatally wrong assumption is that there is greater C sequestration away from the atmosphere. This paper reminds us that the life expectancy of a tree is shorter if it grows fast, and that it is the pool size of C in a forest rather than the speed of C cycling through that pool that matters in terms of mitigating atmospheric CO2 enrichment. The paper shows that trunks that grew faster in their initial 50 years of life will be more likely to face earlier mortality. This insight is not new as such, but the evidence shown here is a novel, particularly convincing case. The patterns reported match knowledge from plantation forestry that operates at high productivity but low mean C stocking across the landscape, and it holds for the Amazonian forest, which shows a smaller biomass C pool in its most vigorous parts and greater C stocks in the less productive parts {1}.
References
1.
The regional variation of aboveground live biomass in old-growth Amazonian forests.
Global Change Biol. 2006; 12: 1107-1138
Disclosures
None declared
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Koerner C: F1000Prime Recommendation of [Bigler C and Veblen TT, Oikos 2009, 118:1130-8]. In F1000Prime, 21 Mar 2012; DOI: 10.3410/f.14204957.15721057. F1000Prime.com/14204957#eval15721057
F1000Prime Recommendations, Dissents and Comments for [Bigler C and Veblen TT, Oikos 2009, 118:1130-8]. In F1000Prime, 22 May 2013; F1000Prime.com/14204957
