Including soil alters the optimization of forestry with carbon sinks

We integrate a carbon net sink and stand-level wood production to analyze their simultaneous optimization as an economic problem. Carbon is included in living trees, wood products, and forest soil. Forestry is specified by a size-structured model for optimizing thinning timing and intensity, rotation period, and the optimal choice of rotation versus continuous cover forestry. The optimal inclusion of a carbon net sink increases the carbon pool mainly in living trees and forest soil, while the effect on the product carbon pool remains minor. With a 3% interest rate, increasing the C[O.sub.2] price to 40 [euro] per tC[O.sub.2] increases the total steady-state carbon pool by 131% and the soil carbon accounts for ca. 60% of the increased carbon storage. Omitting soil carbon, as in previous studies, leads to underestimates of the carbon sink, significantly decreasing the optimal total C[O.sub.2] net sink and achievable economic net gain from joint wood production and carbon management. The inclusion of soil carbon suggests that, in contrast to previous results, a higher C[O.sub.2] price does not necessarily favor continuous cover forestry. Key words: carbon sequestration, economic profitability, soil carbon, continuous cover forestry, rotation forestry, optimal rotation
1. Introduction Climate change and the aim of limiting global warming have strongly increased the attention given to forests as carbon sinks (Shukla et al. 2019). Compared with the tropics, [...]