Eric T. Neilson

Mountain pine beetle and forest carbon feedback to climate change

The mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins, Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Scolytinae) is a native insect of the pine forests of western North America, and its populations periodically erupt into large-scale outbreaks. During outbreaks, the resulting widespread tree mortality reduces forest carbon uptake and increases future emissions from the decay of killed trees. The impacts of insects on forest carbon dynamics, however, are generally ignored in large-scale modelling analyses. The current outbreak in British Columbia, Canada, is an order of magnitude larger in area and severity than all previous recorded outbreaks. Here we estimate that the cumulative impact of the beetle outbreak in the affected region during 2000–2020 will be 270 megatonnes (Mt) carbon (or 36 g carbon m-2 yr-1 on average over 374,000 km2 of forest). This impact converted the forest from a small net carbon sink to a large net carbon source both during and immediately after the outbreak. In the worst year, the impacts resulting from the beetle outbreak in British Columbia were equivalent to ∼75% of the average annual direct forest fire emissions from all of Canada during 1959–1999. The resulting reduction in net primary production was of similar magnitude to increases observed during the 1980s and 1990s as a result of global change. Climate change has contributed to the unprecedented extent and severity of this outbreak. Insect outbreaks such as this represent an important mechanism by which climate change may undermine the ability of northern forests to take up and store atmospheric carbon, and such impacts should be accounted for in large-scale modelling analyses.

Risk of natural disturbances makes future contribution of Canada's forests to the global carbon cycle highly uncertain

A large carbon sink in northern land surfaces inferred from global carbon cycle inversion models led to concerns during Kyoto Protocol negotiations that countries might be able to avoid efforts to reduce fossil fuel emissions by claiming large sinks in their managed forests. The greenhouse gas balance of Canadas managed forest is strongly affected by naturally occurring fire with high interannual variability in the area burned and by cyclical insect outbreaks. Taking these stochastic future disturbances into account, we used the Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector (CBM-CFS3) to project that the managed forests of Canada could be a source of between 30 and 245 Mt CO2e yr−1 during the first Kyoto Protocol commitment period (2008–2012). The recent transition from sink to source is the result of large insect outbreaks. The wide range in the predicted greenhouse gas balance (215 Mt CO2e yr−1) is equivalent to nearly 30% of Canadas emissions in 2005. The increasing impact of natural disturbances, the two major insect outbreaks, and the Kyoto Protocol accounting rules all contributed to Canadas decision not to elect forest management. In Canada, future efforts to influence the carbon balance through forest management could be overwhelmed by natural disturbances. Similar circumstances may arise elsewhere if global change increases natural disturbance rates. Future climate mitigation agreements that do not account for and protect against the impacts of natural disturbances, for example, by accounting for forest management benefits relative to baselines, will fail to encourage changes in forest management aimed at mitigating climate change.

An inventory-based analysis of Canada's managed forest carbon dynamics, 1990 to 2008.

Canadas forests play an important role in the global carbon (C) cycle because of their large and dynamic C stocks. Detailed monitoring of C exchange between forests and the atmosphere and improved understanding of the processes that affect the net ecosystem exchange of C are needed to improve our understanding of the terrestrial C budget. We estimated the C budget of Canadas 2.3 × 106 km2 managed forests from 1990 to 2008 using an empirical modelling approach driven by detailed forestry datasets. We estimated that average net primary production (NPP) during this period was 809 ± 5 Tg C yr−1 (352 g C m−2 yr−1) and net ecosystem production (NEP) was 71 ± 9 Tg C yr−1 (31 g C m−2 yr−1). Harvesting transferred 45 ± 4 Tg C yr−1 out of the ecosystem and 45 ± 4 Tg C yr−1 within the ecosystem (from living biomass to dead organic matter pools). Fires released 23 ± 16 Tg C yr−1 directly to the atmosphere, and fires, insects and other natural disturbances transferred 52 ± 41 Tg C yr−1 from biomass to dead organic matter pools, from where C will gradually be released through decomposition. Net biome production (NBP) was only 2 ± 20 Tg C yr−1 (1 g C m−2 yr−1); the low C sequestration ratio (NBP/NPP=0.3%) is attributed to the high average age of Canadas managed forests and the impact of natural disturbances. Although net losses of ecosystem C occurred during several years due to large fires and widespread bark beetle outbreak, Canadas managed forests were a sink for atmospheric CO2 in all years, with an uptake of 50 ± 18 Tg C yr−1 [net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of CO2=−22 g C m−2 yr−1].

Implications of future disturbance regimes on the carbon balance of Canada's managed forest (2010-2100).

Recent increases in fire and insect disturbances have contributed to a transition of Canada’s managed forest carbon balance from sink to source. Further increases in area burned could contribute positive feedback to climate change. We made probabilistic forecasts of the recovery of C sinks in Canada’s managed forest between 2010 and 2100 under two assumptions about future area burned by wildfire: (1) no increase relative to levels observed in the last half of the 20th century and (2) linear increases by a factor of two or four (depending on region) from 2010 to 2100. Recovery of strong C sinks in Canada’s managed forest will be delayed until at least the 2030s because of insect outbreaks, even if predicted increases in area annually burned do not occur. After 2050, our simulations project an annual probability of a sink near 70% with no increase in area burned and 35% with increasing area burned. All simulations project a cumulative C source from 2010–2100, even if annual area burned does not increase. If the sink strength of terrestrial ecosystems is reduced because of increasing natural disturbances, then it will become more difficult to achieve global atmospheric CO2 stabilization targets.

The impact of tropospheric ozone on landscape-level merchantable biomass and ecosystem carbon in Canadian forests

Studies have shown that tropospheric ozone (O3) impacts trees in various ways, including growth reductions. To date, the landscape-level response of Canadian forests carbon (C) to O3 exposure has not been quantified. We used a modified version of the Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector and data from Aspen FACE to quantify the landscape-level impacts of different O3 exposure modelling experiments. The main strengths of our approach consisted of using the most complete empirical data available to estimate the amount and location of forest C across Canada, as well as explicitly simulating the consequences of fire, insect, and harvest disturbances on forest C dynamics. These disturbances lead to younger forests and, considering trees sensitivity to O3 exposure to decrease with age, thus result in higher landscape-level modelled impacts for the same O3 levels. Despite various sources of uncertainty, our results indicate that even under a modelling experiment where O3 increases continuously over four decades, the landscape-level impacts on the merchantable biomass and ecosystem C remain limited. Our results also suggest that the current direct impacts of O3 on Canadian forests are likely below detection at the landscape level.