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volume of carbon "collected" by tree species

Started by spencerhenry, August 01, 2007, 03:15:16 PM

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spencerhenry

i am looking for info on how much carbon certain species of trees "collect". i would like to find out for some common species in US. some hardwoods, and some softwoods. for example, an aspen tree has a life span of 100 years, in that hundred years the average tree grows to 80' tall, and 20" dia, and contains X pounds of carbon. it is the lifespan, and size, and amount of carbon i am looking for. i know that trees grow at different rates in different parts of the country, so i am also looking for a growth to maturity chart for various areas of the country. any body know where to look?

jim king

You have ask a wonderful question and I will be waiting for the responses with much interest.

I have ask many "experts" in this carbon business a similar question and not one can answer about a single tree so far no a detailed answer about a forest in general.  It looks like the carbon credit programs may well fade away when people start trying to verify what is fact and what is fiction.

Now they say we are learning that an old growth forest makes more carbon than it absorbs.  Does that mean we should make pasture out of the Amazon to save us from global warming ¿?

This will be a great thread.

BrandonTN

I'm not sure about how much trees hold, but I've heard soils hold alot. You might want to look in a soil science book, or just look it up on the net.
Forester, Nantahala National Forest

jon12345

All of my carbon sequstration information has been sequestered with all my other college stuff somewheres.  I'll take a look this weekend and see if I can unsequester it.  :)
A.A.S. in Forest Technology.....Ironworker

Rocky_Ranger

http://www.es.lancs.ac.uk/people/cnh/docs/UrbanTrees1.pdf

Try this website, actually do a search and see what you catch for information.  Some works will list by species but lack model guidance on predictive quantities.  I've been trying to do some analysis on certain species myself, but there are some "general" rules of the road to get started;
1.   It depends – it depends on where you are looking, as in warm to cool to cold climates, it depends on tree species, and it really depends on size of trees themselves.
2.   Are you just sequestering carbon or making a run on other air contaminants also
3.   Are you in a managed forest or natural management scheme
4.   Associations of other species.  Some plantations interspersed with mimosa (mimosa?) showed that the mimosa "fixed" more nitrogen and contributed to better growth of hardwood trees than pure stands.  No simple answers with this one.......

Carbon is really just growth and yield curves turned into weight derivatives, pounds = carbon.  Hardwood runs ~50% carbon by weight and pine run ~ 42% by weight.  Plantations (pine) don't necessarily sequester lots of carbon but you can grow so many DanG rotations, you can make up for lost time for age of the stands.

The more I read and try to uncover the answers the more confused I get.  Good luck!
RETIRED!

cantcutter

I heard on NPR not too long ago that the worlds biggest emitter of CO2 is earthworms.
Soon people will be planting trees and fishing to off set carbon emissions 8)

Phorester

Maybe this information is available somewhere, but I know of no information gathered on pounds of carbon sequestered by tree species.  I betcha, though, that it is being developed by researchers now since there is so much interest in carbon seq.

I think there will be little difference in species.  Most estimates say that every tree is about 50% carbon by weight.  So the size of a tree would have a much bigger influence than species on the amount of carbon it contains.  The biggest difference is between conifers and hardwoods.  The information I've seen is that hardwoods are a little under 50% carbon, conifers are a little over 50% carbon.

Early wood has more carbon than late wood.

Trees sequester more carbon when younger and vigorously growing, give up carbon to the atmosphere as they get older and slow down in growth. 

So.........., maybe the answer is to grow trees as fast as possible. At the point where they are carbon neutral, then start to slow down, cut them and manufacture the wood into a solid wood product.  Then, replant with new trees. That way alll the carbon sequestered by the tree when it was growing would conceivably be locked up for decades and even centuries in the solid wood product manufactured from it, unless that wood decayed or was burned. 

arojay

Quote from: cantcutter on November 05, 2007, 07:25:10 AM
I heard on NPR not too long ago that the worlds biggest emitter of CO2 is earthworms.
Soon people will be planting trees and fishing to off set carbon emissions 8)

Hmmm...Fishing guides could sell carbon credits...
440B skidder, JD350 dozer, Husqvarnas from 335 to 394. All spruced up

Phorester


"Soon people will be planting trees and fishing to off set carbon emissions"

Wow!  if I could just convince my boss of that.............

Tom

I like the fishing idea. 

I've got a good idea!   Paul could get rich selling wood gasification gases for running internal combustion engines and store the leftover charcoal for carbon credits.  And then, when the public comes to its senses and realizes the futility of carbon creidits, he could sell the charcoal for them to cook on.

Hmmmm  I wonder if you could run a truck on gasified worms?

crtreedude

Is someone trying to imply that earthworms fart?  ::)
So, how did I end up here anyway?

DanG

Yes, they were assigned that duty by Mother Nature after NPR shamed the cows into stopping.  Ants and Termites filled in temporarily, but I guess they figured they already had enough bad publicity from ruining picnics and eating houses.  With all this political claptrap floating around, Ma Nature is having trouble keeping enough carbon in the air to keep the trees alive. ::)
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

verb

How about controlled burning?  Does anyone know if that contributes C02 to the atmosphere in material quanitities?

Rocky_Ranger

Yes, we do know.  It releases carbon upon burning, but the benefits of a faster growing & healthier forest more than sequesters what was initially volatilized.
RETIRED!

verb

Is there any studies of increased growth from burning vs. herbicide applications? 

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