Largest carbon dioxide sink in renewable forests
Forests are the filters of our Earth: They clean the air, remove dust particles, and produce oxygen. So far, the rain forest in particular has been considered the "green lung" of our planet. Yet, an international team, including researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), recently found that the world's largest carbon sinks are located in young, regrowing forests. The results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).
Forests are considered major carbon sinks. These are ecosystems binding large amounts of carbon, thus retarding CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere and, hence, climate change. These sinks are dynamic, their capacity can grow or shrink regionally. So far, it has been assumed that this is driven mainly by increased photosynthesis due to an increase in the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. Dense tropical forests near the equator, for instance, take up large amounts of CO2.
Together with an international team of researchers, Professor Almut Arneth of the Atmospheric Environmental Research Division of the Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK-IFU), KIT's Campus Alpine, reanalyzed global forests with a combination of data and computer models. Based on datasets of the age of forests, the scientists calculated how much CO2 was taken up by established, at least 140 year-old forest areas between 2001 and 2010. These values were then compared with those of younger forests regrown on former agricultural or deforested areas.
https://eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-03/kift-lcd031319.php
= new reply since forum marked as read
...over the 100+ years:
https://rngr.net/publications/tpn/55-2/forestry-and-tree-planting-in-new-york-state
The New York State tree nursery system was founded in 1902, making it the oldest State-run tree nursery in the United States (Solan 2003). Throughout the decades, the New York State tree nursery has evolved to meet the changing needs of tree planting in New York State. From the first small nurseries in the Adirondacks, the nursery system grew to multiple nurseries across the State that provide trees to fulfill local planting needs. Since the first years of planting trees, when the State’s land was barely 20 percent forested, through the huge reforestation programs in the 1930s and to the rising demand for native species in the 21st century, the nursery has grown the trees that have helped transform the State. Today, nearly 63 percent of the State is forested (figure 1)...
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By the 1880s, less than 20 percent of New York State was forested, and the remaining uncut forests in the Catskills and Adirondacks were being logged at a fast pace. In 1885, New York created the Forest Preserve Act to protect State-owned lands in the Catskills and Adirondacks from further exploitation (NYS DEC 2010). This act was strengthened in 1894 byan amendment to the New York State Constitution:The lands of the State, now owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the forest preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, nor shall the timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed.
The Forest Preserve began with 681,000 acres (275,600 hectares) in the Adirondacks and 34,000 acres (13,760 hectares) in the Catskills. Today there are more than 2.6 million forested acres (1.05 million forested hectares) in the Adirondacks and more than 300,000 acres (121,400 hectares) in the Catskills, held as forever wild lands for New Yorkers. The Forest Preserve is the largest State-designated wilderness in the country and the largest wilderness area east of the Mississippi River (figure 2).
...and I daresay, a wee bit of my pride.
