” chestnut fieldsregardless of its main productive aspects (fruit or wood production), essential elements of the landscapeBesides the cultural heritage Providing their space and important functions and services.” “However, The role of these young chestnut fields as a carbon sink has often been overlooked.“.
These were conducted by Spanish researchers and The “relevant role” of chestnut fields as a carbon sink in the fight against the global climate crisis. Even low-density plantations for fruit production.
The study, developed by the Department of Organisms and Systems Biology at the University of Oviedo in collaboration with the CSIC Institute of Forest Sciences (ICIFOR-INIA), has been published in the journal ‘Forest Ecology and Management’.
The results of the research reveal high carbon absorption capacity of young timber focused chestnut fields. It was an expected result.
It wasn’t all that relevant. fruit oriented fieldshowever, the conclusion reached by the researchers is this: They are also important in tackling climate change.which must be taken into account in the overall statistics of carbon absorption by forest plantations.
“Again, carbon sequestration should be considered as an additional service provided by these fields.plays an important role as part of landscape and cultural heritage areas where the species grows”, the authors point out.
His advice: “The National Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) should include so-called estimates”transitional forests‘ during the 20 years following its planting”.
Large carbon storage capacity
The main aim of this study was to develop New tools for estimating the amount of aboveground and underground biomass stored by young chestnut fields quantify -25 in the first years and their amount carbon storage capacityExplains Pedro Álvarez Álvarez, a researcher at the University of Oviedo.
To this end, the scientists took two approaches: the first for the individual tree and the second for the stand or mass. The new equations developed by these researchers allow owners and managers to “assess the carbon sequestration capacity of plantations and use this feature as a additional and valuable ecosystem serviceAdded Alvarez.
María Menéndez Miguélez, a doctor from the University of Oviedo and a researcher at the Forest Sciences Institute, has so far carbon capture were carried out using methods developed for adult and natural masses in new afforestations.wrong guessesCarbon stocks in the first years after afforestation”.
“The richness of our work, its innovation, lies in the fact that we have developed it. new tools (equations) for estimating aboveground and underground biomass stored in young chestnut fieldsit allows the measurement of carbon storage capacity”, he comments.
“Based on the four independent variables (log diameter, height, normal diameter, and crown projection area) and the combination of these variables, we fitted a new above-ground biomass and root shoot rate models at each tree level,” explain.
“The stand-level expansion was based on age, planting density, productive orientation of the plantation (fruit or tree), area index, and climatic covariates as possible independent variables,” adds the researcher.
chestnut, native to Spain
The results of the study show that these new tools serve to estimate carbon stocks in young fields. writers We recommend using the equations for individual trees when precise estimates are needed and measured inventory variables are available.
Regarding stand-level equations, age-only ones may be a viable alternative for use with national-scale forest statistics, according to the researchers. However, the inclusion of additional variables can “vastly” increase the precision of the equations.
The chestnut tree covers more than 2.5 million hectares in Europe. in Spain, The researchers recall that the chestnut is a native species spread over 272,400 hectares.154,500 correspond to pure masses.
“Despite the recognition the importance of chestnut The role that young chestnut fields can play in catching, as a source of different services and supplies, as well as recent attempts to expand the area occupied by the species –sink effect– and accumulation –reservoir effect– carbon and therefore largely ignored in climate change mitigation,” they note.
This oversight may be due, on the one hand, to the “agro- or agroforestry nature of these fields, especially those plantations dedicated to fruit that often occupy former cultivated lands” and, on the other, to the “fact”. these plantations are usually small and privately owned.This means that many of them are not taken into account in forestry statistics.”
“Forest restoration and the increase of forestland through reforestation and reforestation are emerging as effective initiatives to mitigate climate change. scientists conclude by reducing the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere.
Reference report: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112722007551#f000 5
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Contact address of the environment department: crizclimatica@prensaiberica.es
Source: Informacion
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