Articles | Volume 19, issue 13
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-3263-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-3263-2022
Research article
 | 
13 Jul 2022
Research article |  | 13 Jul 2022

The European forest carbon budget under future climate conditions and current management practices

Roberto Pilli, Ramdane Alkama, Alessandro Cescatti, Werner A. Kurz, and Giacomo Grassi

Related authors

The consolidated European synthesis of CO2 emissions and removals for the European Union and United Kingdom: 1990–2018
Ana Maria Roxana Petrescu, Matthew J. McGrath, Robbie M. Andrew, Philippe Peylin, Glen P. Peters, Philippe Ciais, Gregoire Broquet, Francesco N. Tubiello, Christoph Gerbig, Julia Pongratz, Greet Janssens-Maenhout, Giacomo Grassi, Gert-Jan Nabuurs, Pierre Regnier, Ronny Lauerwald, Matthias Kuhnert, Juraj Balkovič, Mart-Jan Schelhaas, Hugo A. C. Denier van der Gon, Efisio Solazzo, Chunjing Qiu, Roberto Pilli, Igor B. Konovalov, Richard A. Houghton, Dirk Günther, Lucia Perugini, Monica Crippa, Raphael Ganzenmüller, Ingrid T. Luijkx, Pete Smith, Saqr Munassar, Rona L. Thompson, Giulia Conchedda, Guillaume Monteil, Marko Scholze, Ute Karstens, Patrick Brockmann, and Albertus Johannes Dolman
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 2363–2406, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-2363-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-2363-2021, 2021
Short summary

Cited articles

Avitabile, V., Pilli, R., and Camia, A.: The biomass of European forests, EUR 30462 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 52 pp., https://doi.org/10.2760/758855, 2020. 
Blujdea, V. N., Sikkema, R., Dutca, I., and Nabuurs, G. J.: Two large-scale forest scenario modelling approaches for reporting CO2 removal: a comparison for the Romanian forests, Carbon Balance and Management, 16, 1–17, https://doi.org/10.1186/s13021-021-00188-1, 2021a. 
Blujdea, V. N., Viskari, T., Kulmala, L., Gârbacea, G., Dutcǎ, I., Miclǎuş, M., Marin, G., and Liski, J.: Silvicultural interventions drive the changes in soil organic carbon in Romanian forests according to two model simulations, Forests, 12, 795, https://doi.org/10.3390/f12060795, 2021b. 
Bosela, M., Tumajer, J., Cienciala, E., Dobor, L., Kulla, L., Marčiš, P., Popa, I., Sedmák, R., Sedmáková, D., Sitko, R., S̆eben̆, V., Štěpánek, P., and Büntgen, U. : Climate warming induced synchronous growth decline in Norway spruce populations across biogeographical gradients since 2000, Sci. Total Environ., 752, 141794, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141794, 2021. 
Böttcher, H. and Frelih-Larsen, A.: Options for Strengthening Natural Carbon Sinks and Reducing Land Use Emissions in the EU, Öko-Institut e.V., Working paper, 66 pp., https://www.oeko.de/en/publications/p-details/options-for-strengthening-natural-carbon-sinks-and-reducing-land-use-emissions-in-the-eu (last access: 27 June 2022), 2021. 
Download
Short summary
To become carbon neutral by 2050, the European Union (EU27) forest C sink should increase to −450 Mt CO2 yr-1. Our study highlights that under current management practices (i.e. excluding any policy scenario) the forest C sink of the EU27 member states and the UK may decrease to about −250 Mt CO2eq yr-1 in 2050. The expected impacts of future climate change, however, add a considerable uncertainty, potentially nearly doubling or halving the sink associated with forest management.
Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint