Forest Ecosystem Dynamics and Carbon Management Strategies

Forest ecosystems are dynamic entities in which biological growth, natural disturbances and human interventions interact to regulate the uptake, storage and release of carbon. Photosynthesis by trees and understory vegetation removes atmospheric carbon dioxide, transferring it into living biomass and soil pools. Disturbances such as fire, insect outbreaks and storm events can abruptly return stored carbon to the atmosphere, while continued regrowth and successional processes drive long-term recovery of carbon stocks. Land-use change through harvesting, land clearance and replanting further modulates these fluxes. In response to climate change and policy imperatives, a range of management strategies has emerged to enhance forest carbon storage and reduce emissions. These include protecting intact and old-growth stands, adopting silvicultural practices that balance growth with retention, extending rotation ages, and reducing the scale or intensity of harvesting. Complementary approaches such as proforestation—allowing existing forests to mature—and afforestation or reforestation on degraded lands contribute additional sinks. Integrating these options within landscape-scale planning and carbon-accounting frameworks underpins efforts to meet global mitigation targets and secure ecosystem services linked to biodiversity, water regulation and social well-being.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have quantified the true carbon costs of global wood harvests by developing a time-discounting model that accounts for both emissions incurred at harvest and the delayed benefits of regrowth. Findings suggest that harvests from 2010 to 2050 may incur annualised carbon costs comparable to those from agricultural land-use change, highlighting a major mitigation opportunity in reducing harvest intensity. Complementing this, large-scale field inventories across European primary forests reveal that undisturbed stands store 1.6 to 2.3 times more carbon than current global models predict, and safeguarding these stocks could deliver over 300 Mt CO₂ yr⁻¹ of additional sequestration—on par with regional policy targets for 2030. Ground-based analyses in North America further show that recovering forests approach a saturation of biomass carbon sink under future climates, indicating that sustaining existing sinks through disturbance management and policy support is as important as expanding new sinks.

Forest Ecosystem Dynamics and Carbon Management Strategies publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in forest ecosystem dynamics and carbon management strategies across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Carbon sequestration: The process by which forests remove CO₂ from the atmosphere and store it in biomass and soils.

Carbon carrying capacity: The maximum carbon stock that a forest ecosystem can sustainably hold under reference conditions.

Biomass saturation: A state in which forest growth no longer increases net carbon storage due to age, nutrient limitations or environmental constraints.

Proforestation: A strategy of maximising carbon storage and ecological co-benefits by allowing existing forests to grow undisturbed to maturity.

Silvicultural practices: Forest management interventions, such as thinning or selective cutting, designed to influence stand structure, growth rates and carbon dynamics.

Carbon residence time: The average duration that carbon remains stored in a given pool, whether in living biomass, soils or harvested products.

References

1. The carbon costs of global wood harvests. Nature (2023).
2. Carbon carrying capacity in primary forests shows potential for mitigation achieving the European Green Deal 2030 target. Communications Earth & Environment (2024).
3. Limits to growth of forest biomass carbon sink under climate change. Nature Communications (2018).
4. Forest Carbon Management: a Review of Silvicultural Practices and Management Strategies Across Boreal, Temperate and Tropical Forests. Current Forestry Reports (2021).
5. Forest Contribution to Climate Change Mitigation: Management Oriented to Carbon Capture and Storage. Climate (2020).
6. Intact Forests in the United States: Proforestation Mitigates Climate Change and Serves the Greatest Good. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change (2019).