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Estimating Carbon Sequestration Rates on a Regional Scale

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Plant Litter

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Abstract

Two case studies on carbon (C) sequestration rate for the forested lands of Sweden are compared; one is a theoretical one based on calculable stable residue (limit-value approach) and measured data. Actual evapotranspiration (AET) was used to estimate foliar litter fall for different tree species. Estimated limit values were used to calculate the annual contribution of stable fraction (based on limit values), which corresponds to ‘humus’ and a multiplication by 0.5 gave the sequestered amount of C. The second approach was based on direct measurements of the humus layer over 41 years. Humus thickness was converted to amount of humus, then to mass of C and finally to the increase in humus-layer C over time. For both studies the country was subdivided into grid cells and Kriging interpolation was used. For both studies the sequestration rate was positively related to temperature. A country-wide study concluded that Mn concentration in humus layers was negatively related to the amount of humus. With just two dominant tree species a comparison was made. Scots pine stands sequestered C at a higher rate in humus layers than Norway spruce, whereas Norway spruce sequestered more in the mineral soil, suggesting different mechanisms for the two systems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Prof. Björn Berg

  2. Department of Biology, University of Mount Union, Alliance, OH, USA

    Prof. Charles McClaugherty

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Correspondence to Björn Berg .

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Berg, B., McClaugherty, C. (2020). Estimating Carbon Sequestration Rates on a Regional Scale. In: Plant Litter. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59631-6_12

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