Effects of Forest Age Structure, Management and Gradual Climate Change on Carbon Sequestration and Timber Production in Finnish Boreal Forests

Abstract

In this work, we employed two different ecosystem models in two separate case studies to assess the effects of forest age structure, management and gradual climate change on timber production and carbon sequestration of Finnish boreal forests with Norway spruce as main (dominant) tree species. Our case study examples demonstrated that over the 90 years simulation period the total timber production was from 16 to 30 % lower in southern Finland under the mild (SRES B1) and strong (SRES A2) climate change scenarios. In the northern Finland, the total timber production increased regardless of climate change scenario applied. Furthermore, both total timber production, its economic profitability and carbon stocks of forest ecosystem could be increased simultaneously if higher stocking (growing stock volume) was maintained over the rotation compared to the Finnish baseline forest management. However, timber production and carbon sequestration could not be maximised simultaneously. Thus, any preference of carbon sequestration in forest management would reduce the timber production and would result on opportunity costs.