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A managed boreal forest landscape in northern Sweden is a persistent net carbon sink despite large inter-annual weather anomalies

Chi, Jinshu ; Klosterhalfen, Anne ; Nilsson, Mats B. ; Laudon, Hjalmar ; Wallerman, Jörgen ; Larson, Johannes ; Lindroth, Anders LU orcid ; Kljun, Natascha LU orcid ; Fransson, Johan E.S. and Lundmark, Tomas , et al. (2025) In Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 373.
Abstract

The future role of boreal forests in the global carbon cycle is uncertain given the rapid climate change in high latitudes. At the landscape scale, heterogeneity in stand age and land cover, contributions from terrestrial and aquatic fluxes, and harvest export may create complex carbon cycle-climate interactions. However, the integrated response of the net landscape carbon balance (NLCB) to inter-annual variations (IAVs) in environmental conditions is poorly understood. Here, we used tall-tower eddy covariance and stream monitoring to integrate terrestrial and aquatic carbon fluxes with harvest export for a 68 km2 boreal catchment in Sweden during 2016–2020. This actively managed forest landscape acted as a net carbon sink... (More)

The future role of boreal forests in the global carbon cycle is uncertain given the rapid climate change in high latitudes. At the landscape scale, heterogeneity in stand age and land cover, contributions from terrestrial and aquatic fluxes, and harvest export may create complex carbon cycle-climate interactions. However, the integrated response of the net landscape carbon balance (NLCB) to inter-annual variations (IAVs) in environmental conditions is poorly understood. Here, we used tall-tower eddy covariance and stream monitoring to integrate terrestrial and aquatic carbon fluxes with harvest export for a 68 km2 boreal catchment in Sweden during 2016–2020. This actively managed forest landscape acted as a net carbon sink with a 5-year mean (± standard deviation) NLCB of 128±55 g C m-2 yr-1. The NLCB IAV included a reduced sink (36 g C m-2 yr-1) during the cool/cloudy year 2017. In the other four years, featuring a drought summer (2018) and an exceptionally warm/wet winter (2020), the landscape acted as a significant sink (127–180 g C m-2 yr-1). The NLCB IAV corresponded primarily to variations in landscape respiration, followed by GPP and harvest export, with negligible contributions from landscape CH4 and aquatic carbon fluxes. The NLCB IAV was not correlated to any single environmental factor. However, daily NLCB contrastingly responded to key environmental factors as a function of forest aboveground biomass and mire contributions. Overall, our study indicates that the annual carbon sink-strength of the managed boreal forest landscape may be resilient to a wide range of IAVs in environmental conditions.

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type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Boreal forest landscape, Catchment stream monitoring, Harvest carbon export, Inter-annual weather variations, Tall-tower eddy covariance, Terrestrial and aquatic carbon fluxes
in
Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
volume
373
article number
110758
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:105012248318
ISSN
0168-1923
DOI
10.1016/j.agrformet.2025.110758
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s)
id
95bfd208-0c8c-4084-873f-34465bcb2fa4
date added to LUP
2025-08-13 17:05:07
date last changed
2025-08-14 08:54:03
@article{95bfd208-0c8c-4084-873f-34465bcb2fa4,
  abstract     = {{<p>The future role of boreal forests in the global carbon cycle is uncertain given the rapid climate change in high latitudes. At the landscape scale, heterogeneity in stand age and land cover, contributions from terrestrial and aquatic fluxes, and harvest export may create complex carbon cycle-climate interactions. However, the integrated response of the net landscape carbon balance (NLCB) to inter-annual variations (IAVs) in environmental conditions is poorly understood. Here, we used tall-tower eddy covariance and stream monitoring to integrate terrestrial and aquatic carbon fluxes with harvest export for a 68 km<sup>2</sup> boreal catchment in Sweden during 2016–2020. This actively managed forest landscape acted as a net carbon sink with a 5-year mean (± standard deviation) NLCB of 128±55 g C m<sup>-2</sup> yr<sup>-1</sup>. The NLCB IAV included a reduced sink (36 g C m<sup>-2</sup> yr<sup>-1</sup>) during the cool/cloudy year 2017. In the other four years, featuring a drought summer (2018) and an exceptionally warm/wet winter (2020), the landscape acted as a significant sink (127–180 g C m<sup>-2</sup> yr<sup>-1</sup>). The NLCB IAV corresponded primarily to variations in landscape respiration, followed by GPP and harvest export, with negligible contributions from landscape CH<sub>4</sub> and aquatic carbon fluxes. The NLCB IAV was not correlated to any single environmental factor. However, daily NLCB contrastingly responded to key environmental factors as a function of forest aboveground biomass and mire contributions. Overall, our study indicates that the annual carbon sink-strength of the managed boreal forest landscape may be resilient to a wide range of IAVs in environmental conditions.</p>}},
  author       = {{Chi, Jinshu and Klosterhalfen, Anne and Nilsson, Mats B. and Laudon, Hjalmar and Wallerman, Jörgen and Larson, Johannes and Lindroth, Anders and Kljun, Natascha and Fransson, Johan E.S. and Lundmark, Tomas and Peichl, Matthias}},
  issn         = {{0168-1923}},
  keywords     = {{Boreal forest landscape; Catchment stream monitoring; Harvest carbon export; Inter-annual weather variations; Tall-tower eddy covariance; Terrestrial and aquatic carbon fluxes}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{10}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Agricultural and Forest Meteorology}},
  title        = {{A managed boreal forest landscape in northern Sweden is a persistent net carbon sink despite large inter-annual weather anomalies}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2025.110758}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.agrformet.2025.110758}},
  volume       = {{373}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}