Twenty-five percent of the world’s forests are in the temperate biome. They include a wide range of forest types, and the exact boundaries with boreal forests to the north and tropical forests to the south are not always clear. There is a great variety of species, soil types, and environmental conditions which lead to a diversity of factors affecting carbon storage and flux. Temperate forests have been severely impacted by human use - throughout history, all but about 1% have been logged-over, converted to agriculture, intensively managed, grazed, or fragmented by sprawling development. Nevertheless, they have proven to be resilient - mostly second growth forests now cover about 40-50% of the original extent of the biome. Although remaining intact temperate forests continue to be fragmented by development, particularly in North America, there is no large-scale deforestation at present, nor is there likely to be in the future. The status of the temperate biome as a carbon reservoir and atmospheric CO2sink rests mainly on strong productivity and resilience in the face of disturbance. The small “sink” status of temperate forests could change to a “source” status if the balance between photosynthesis and respiration shifts
CITATION STYLE
Tyrrell, M. L., Ross, J., & Kelty, M. (2012). Carbon dynamics in the temperate forest. In Managing Forest Carbon in a Changing Climate (pp. 77–107). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2232-3_5
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