A beautiful Carbon Sink. Photo:Giampaolo Macorig via flickr
A beautiful Carbon Sink. Photo:Giampaolo Macorig via flickr

A beautiful Carbon Sink. Photo:Giampaolo Macorig via flickr

Climate change, behind habitat loss, is the second biggest threat to biodiversity and may become the largest factor responsible for species extinctions in the coming years (Chivian et al. 2008). Forests store carbon and loss of this carbon sink can have a large effect on the climate (Bradshaw et al. 2009).

Unfortunately, less than 10% of the world’s forests are protected. It is estimated that 13 million hectares of the world’s forests are cleared annually (FAO).

The northern Boreal forests are large coniferous forests that contain roughly 30% of all the stored carbon on earth—an estimated 550 gigatonnes of carbon in soil and above ground pools (Bradshaw et al. 2009) Boreal forests are the largest contiguous forest left. However, this crucial carbon sink may become a carbon source if global warming increases decomposition rates and the growing season. The location of the Boreal forests at the northern latitudes makes one of the largest carbon sinks highly susceptible to climate change. Continued logging of this important forest will release carbon, speeding up global warming.

One study modeled carbon fluxes in the 21st century, looking at climate change, human interaction and deforestation rates of tropical forests. High deforestation (129 thousand km squared per year) could give more than 360 gigatonnes of carbon. This could lead to an addition 29 to 129 ppm (parts per million) concentration in the atmosphere (Cramer et al. 2004). That is a LOT, considering that in 2007, CO2 levels were estimated at 384 ppm. That level of deforestation is not ridiculous considering how the rates have been climbing.

SO DO SOMETHING! We need forest so they can act as a climate stabilizer (and for many many other reasons). The rate of deforestation needs to decrease in order to prevent it from having a significant contribution to climate change.

Sources:

• Bradshaw, Corey J.A, Ian G. Warkentin and Navjot S. Sodhi. Urgent preservation of boreal carbon stocks and biodiversity. 2009. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 24.10: 541-546.

• Chivian, Eric and Aaron Bernstein. Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity. Center for Health and the Global Environment. Oxford University Press, 2008.

• Cramer, Wolfgang, Alberte Bondeau, Sibyll Schaphoff, Wolfgang Lucht, Benjamin Smith and Stephan Sitch. Tropical forests and the global carbon cycle: impacts of atmospheric carbon dioxide, climate change and rate of deforestation. 2004. Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences. 359.1443: 331-343.

• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Forestry: Managing Forests for the future. 2009. Rome, FAO.