Forest BioEnergy Production Management, Carbon Sequestration and Adaptation

About this book

For thousands of years, forest biomass or wood has been among the main energy sources of humans around the world. Since the industrial revolution, fossil fuels have replaced wood and become the dominant source of energy. The use of fossil fuels has the disadvantage of increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs), especially carbon dioxide (CO₂), with the consequent warming of global climate and changes in precipitation. In this context, the substitution of fossil fuels with renewable energy sources like forest biomass is among the ways to mitigate climate change.

Forest BioEnergy Production summarizes recent experiences on how to manage forest land to produce woody biomass for energy use and what are the potentials to mitigate climate change by substituting fossil fuels in energy production. In this context, Forest BioEnergy Production addresses how management can affect the supply of energy biomass using short-rotation forestry and the conventional forestry applying long rotations.

Furthermore, Forest BioEnergy Production outlines the close interaction between the ecological systems and industrial systems, which controls the carbon cycle between the atmosphere and biosphere. In this context, sustainable forest management is a key to understand and control indirect carbon emissions due to the utilization of forest biomass (e.g. from management, harvesting and logistics, and ecosystem processes), which are often omitted in assessing the carbon neutrality of energy systems based on forest biomass. The focus in Forest BioEnergy Production is on forests and forestry in the boreal and temperate zones, particularly in Northern Europe, where the woody biomass is widely used in the energy industry for producing energy.

Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction

PART I: Forest Management for Bioenergy Production
Chapter 2. Tree species, genetics and regeneration for bioenergy feedstock in northern Europe
Chapter 3. Short-rotation forestry for supplying biomass for energy production
Chapter 4. Integrated production of timber and energy biomass in forestry
Chapter 5. Nutrient management for sustainable production of energy biomass in boreal forests
Chapter 6. Fertilization in boreal and temperate forests and the potential for biomass production
Chapter 7. Integration of management measures for bioenergy production from spatial and temporal perspectives in a forest region - the case of Finland

PART II: Mitigation and Carbon Sequestration
Chapter 8. Effects of bioenergy production on carbon sequestration in forest ecosystems
Chapter 9. Stump harvesting, bioenergy feedstock and sequestration of carbon in soil
Chapter 10. Life cycle carbon assessment of bioenergy production
Chapter 11. Time dynamics and radiative forcing of forest bioenergy systems

PART III: Adaptation
Chapter 12. Climate change and forest management: implications for energy biomass production in boreal forest ecosystems
Chapter 13. Risk and uncertainty in adaptive forest management under climate change
Chapter 14. Economic competitiveness of forest biomass energy

PART IV: Future Direction / Conclusions
Chapter 15. Conclusions
Annex

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