Carbon Balance Implications of Forest Biomass Production Potential

Forests in boreal and temperate forest-ecosystems have importance for carbon balance since they sequester large amount of atmospheric carbon by uptake of carbon-dioxide during photosynthesis, and transfer and store carbon in the forest ecosystem. Forest material can be used for bio-fuel purposes and substitute fossil fuels, and supply wood products, which can replace carbon-and-energy-intensive materials. Therefore it is vital to consider the role of forests regarding today ́s aim to mitigate climate change. This thesis assess (i) how climate change affects future forest carbon balance, (ii) the importance of different strategies for forest management systems, and biomass production for the carbon balance, (iii) how the use of forest production affect the total carbon balance in a lifecycle perspective, and (iv) how the Swedish carbon balance is affected from the standpoint of both the actual use of forest raw material within Sweden and what Swedish forestry exports. The analysis was made mainly in a long-term perspective (60-300 years) to illustrate the importance of temporal and also the spatial perspective, as the analysis includes stand level, landscape level, and national level. In this thesis, forestry was considered a system. All activities, from forest regeneration to end use of forest products, were entities of this system. In the evaluation, made from a systems perspective, we used life-cycle analysis to estimate carbon stock in different system flows. Different forest management systems and forest production were integrated in the analyses. Different forest management scenarios were designed for the Swedish forest management in combination with the effect of future climate change; (i) intensive forest practice aiming at increased growth, (ii) increased forest set-aside areas, changes in forest management systems for biomass production, and (iii) how the use of forest products affect the total carbon balance (construction material, bioenergy and other domestic use).