Forests as carbon sinks : a comparison between the boreal forest and the tropical forest
(2012) In Student thesis series INES NGEK01 20121Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
- Abstract
- The world’s forest biomes have an important role in the global carbon cycle. With an increasing level of atmospheric CO2 concentration, mainly due to the burning of fossil fuel and deforestation, it is important to analyze the significance of the forests biomes as carbon sinks. This review analyses the boreal forest and the tropical forest by investigating the amount of carbon taken up and where most of the carbon is stored. Also, the future climate impact on these forests and their carbon uptake is investigated.
The carbon storage in the two different forest biomes varies between the different studies. This is mainly due to the variation in total forest extent, and also the different methods used for estimating the carbon... (More) - The world’s forest biomes have an important role in the global carbon cycle. With an increasing level of atmospheric CO2 concentration, mainly due to the burning of fossil fuel and deforestation, it is important to analyze the significance of the forests biomes as carbon sinks. This review analyses the boreal forest and the tropical forest by investigating the amount of carbon taken up and where most of the carbon is stored. Also, the future climate impact on these forests and their carbon uptake is investigated.
The carbon storage in the two different forest biomes varies between the different studies. This is mainly due to the variation in total forest extent, and also the different methods used for estimating the carbon concentrations. Furthermore, the boreal forest stores most of its carbon in the soils, whereas the tropical forest stores most of the carbon in the plant biomass.
The future climate changes, caused by the increasing levels of CO2, will mostly affect the boreal forest by increasing the frequency of natural disturbances such as fire and insect outbreaks. Even though climate change seems to have great impact on the tropical forest and its future ability to take up carbon, anthropogenic disturbances such as deforestation, seems to have a greater effect on this forest type and its ability to store carbon. (Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- Populärvetenskaplig sammanfattning
Världens skogar spelar en viktig roll i den globala kolcykeln. Med den ökade nivån av CO2-koncentrationen i atmosfären, orsakad av bränning av fossila bränslen och avskogning, så är det viktigt att analysera skogens roll som global kolsänka. Denna uppsats analyserar den boreala skogen och den tropiska skogen genom att undersöka hur mycket kol som tas upp och var kolen lagras i dessa skogstyper. Utöver det så undersöks effekten av framtida klimatförändringar på den boreala skogen och den tropiska skogen.
Den totala mängden kol som förvaras i de två skogstyperna varierar från studie till studie. Detta är mest på grund av stora variationer i den totala utsträckningen av skogarna, och det faktum att olika... (More) - Populärvetenskaplig sammanfattning
Världens skogar spelar en viktig roll i den globala kolcykeln. Med den ökade nivån av CO2-koncentrationen i atmosfären, orsakad av bränning av fossila bränslen och avskogning, så är det viktigt att analysera skogens roll som global kolsänka. Denna uppsats analyserar den boreala skogen och den tropiska skogen genom att undersöka hur mycket kol som tas upp och var kolen lagras i dessa skogstyper. Utöver det så undersöks effekten av framtida klimatförändringar på den boreala skogen och den tropiska skogen.
Den totala mängden kol som förvaras i de två skogstyperna varierar från studie till studie. Detta är mest på grund av stora variationer i den totala utsträckningen av skogarna, och det faktum att olika metoder används för att beräkna kolkoncentrationerna. Vidare så har det påvisats att den boreala skogen lagrar mest kol i jorden, medan den tropiska skogen lagrar det i vegetationen ovanför jorden.
Framtida klimatförändringar, orsakade av en ökad nivå av CO2, kommer att påverka den boreala skogen genom en ökad frekvens av naturliga störningar så som bränder och insektsutbrott. Trots att klimatförändringarna kommer att ha stor effekt på den tropiska skogen, så är det antropogena störningar såsom avskogning som spelar störst roll för denna skogstyp och dess kolupptag. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/2796820
- author
- Osmani, Adelina LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- NGEK01 20121
- year
- 2012
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- climate change, physical geography, carbon cycle, tropisk skog, boreal skog, klimatförändringar, kolcykeln, naturgeografi, geografi, tropical forest, boreal forest
- publication/series
- Student thesis series INES
- report number
- 238
- language
- English
- id
- 2796820
- date added to LUP
- 2012-09-19 17:32:06
- date last changed
- 2012-09-19 17:32:06
@misc{2796820,
abstract = {{The world’s forest biomes have an important role in the global carbon cycle. With an increasing level of atmospheric CO2 concentration, mainly due to the burning of fossil fuel and deforestation, it is important to analyze the significance of the forests biomes as carbon sinks. This review analyses the boreal forest and the tropical forest by investigating the amount of carbon taken up and where most of the carbon is stored. Also, the future climate impact on these forests and their carbon uptake is investigated.
The carbon storage in the two different forest biomes varies between the different studies. This is mainly due to the variation in total forest extent, and also the different methods used for estimating the carbon concentrations. Furthermore, the boreal forest stores most of its carbon in the soils, whereas the tropical forest stores most of the carbon in the plant biomass.
The future climate changes, caused by the increasing levels of CO2, will mostly affect the boreal forest by increasing the frequency of natural disturbances such as fire and insect outbreaks. Even though climate change seems to have great impact on the tropical forest and its future ability to take up carbon, anthropogenic disturbances such as deforestation, seems to have a greater effect on this forest type and its ability to store carbon.}},
author = {{Osmani, Adelina}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
series = {{Student thesis series INES}},
title = {{Forests as carbon sinks : a comparison between the boreal forest and the tropical forest}},
year = {{2012}},
}