Carbon sequestration by forests of the United States. Current status and projections to the year 2040

Abstract

Forest carbon pools and flux for timberlands in the US were projected over the coming 50 yr by coupling a forest economics model, a forest inventory model and a forest carbon model. In the base case scenario, forests sequestered carbon in the 1990s at a rate of 80 Tg yr-1 but came close to equilibrium by the 2020s. The dominant factors driving this change were an increasing forest harvest, a decreasing forest land base, and a reduction in average stand age. Scenarios in which alternative forest policy options were implemented (increased paper recycling and afforestation) produced long-term increases in carbon sequestration of the forest land base of up to 15 Tg yr-1. -from Authors