Carbon Dynamics of Forest Recovery

Carbon Dynamics of Forest Recovery under a Changing Climate: Forcings, Feedbacks, and Implications for Earth System Modeling

Forests recovering from disturbance (secondary forests) are strong carbon (C) sinks that play an important role in climate regulation through their influence on the global C cycle. Climate change is likely to alter forest recovery dynamics or even prevent recovery, and changes in disturbance-recovery dynamics will impact the global C cycle.

To improve understanding of how forest recovery dynamics are shaped by climate and may be impacted by climate change, we will create a comprehensive database on C cycling in secondary forests and use it, together with biogeochemical process modeling, to address three questions that are key to understanding the role of secondary forests in the climate system: (1) How and why does C cycling in forests, including the net ecosystem C balance and subsidiary components of the C cycle, vary as a function of ecosystem age?; (2) How does C cycling during forest recovery vary globally with respect to climate?; (3) How will expected changes in atmospheric CO2 and climate affect C cycling in secondary forests?

Our findings will provide synthetic understanding of C flux and allocation by secondary forests in both current and future climates. Synthesis and analysis of forest C cycle data will provide improved information on C allocation patterns as forests age and the C cycle forcings associated with secondary forests, thereby improving data for validating earth system models and quantifying the role of secondary forests in global C inventories. In addition, our analyses and modeling activities will improve understanding of the mechanisms driving forest recovery and how these might best be represented in earth system models. Finally, our analyses and modeling activities will make significant headway in understanding how forest recovery might be affected by climate changeā€”a potentially important feedback to the climate system.