Question

how would decisions about managing forests for carbon sequestration be affected by the speed at which wood building material decay?

Answer 1

To keep atmospheric Carbon dioxide concentrations below a dangerous level the strategy for Carbon sequestration is adopted where dead or life trees are harvested through selective cutting and then worried in trenches in order to to prevent the the high concentration of carbon in the atmosphere. Wearing of words leads to minimising carbon source from deforestation, extending the lifetime of reforestation carbon Sink and reducing the fire danger in the forest.

For this purpose , three carbon pool categories have been classified as leaf, wood and root. Leaves grow and fall in deciduous forest every year. While for evergreen forest they may last few years. However Woody material such as twigs and small branches of fall and break easily however major branches such as tree trunks have a lifespan of centuries and longer. Thus even though wood Biomass is much larger than leaf Biomass, its larger lifespan suggest a production rate which is much smaller than the leaf Biomass.

Since fine Woody debris decompose more quickly , the trunks are more suitable for burial . Thus deadwood materials which are under various stages of decay can be corrected and buried and it will provide a substantial readily available carbon sink.