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You're not listening to what I'm saying. I'm not talking about carbon sequestration, I'm refuting the argument that "once trees have grown tall enough, they ten

You're not listening to what I'm saying. I'm not talking about carbon sequestration, I'm refuting the argument that "once trees have grown tall enough, they tend to slow down". Here, I pulled a source for you: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.453.5197&rep=rep1&type=pdf https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.45... > Wood production of the entire main trunk and whole crown both increased with size and age up to and including the largest and oldest trees we measured. This is even supported by your own link: > In the past, some researchers have suggested that converting old forests to young, fast-growing plantations, whose harvested wood products could store carbon for several decades, would create a net increase in long-term carbon stocks. This approach was based on the idea that old forests are slow growing and thus carbon sequestration slows down as forests age. More recent research generally does not support this idea, as a global survey of old forests found that many continue to sequester carbon and have stocks that far exceed young, managed forests.

hcurtiss 5y ago
Of course they have stocks that far exceed young managed forests (they store a lot). But forests do not continue packing biomass on indefinitely (the rate of sequestration slows and eventually stops). See this summary of Malmshmeimer (2011) [1]: “Trees do die, and at a rate that eventually reaches some kind of a stasis at a landscape level,” says Fried. “In some stands, up to one hundred percent of the trees will be killed by a fire or insect outbreak; other stands con- tinue to grow, but over the entire forest you’ll eventually reach a plateau, after which the net in-forest growth and carbon accumulation rates decline—eventually to zero.” Many pro- tected forests on public lands, especially those in parks and wilderness areas, are no longer increasing carbon storage, he says. [1] https://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/sciencef/scifi155.pdf https://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/sciencef/scifi155.pdf

hcurtiss 5y ago

Of course they have stocks that far exceed young managed forests (they store a lot). But forests do not continue packing biomass on indefinitely (the rate of sequestration slows and eventually stops). See this summary of Malmshmeimer (2011) [1]: “Trees do die, and at a rate that eventually reaches some kind of a stasis at a landscape level,” says Fried. “In some stands, up to one hundred percent of the trees will be killed by a fire or insect outbreak; other stands con- tinue to grow, but over the entire forest you’ll eventually reach a plateau, after which the net in-forest growth and carbon accumulation rates decline—eventually to zero.” Many pro- tected forests on public lands, especially those in parks and wilderness areas, are no longer increasing carbon storage, he says. [1] https://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/sciencef/scifi155.pdf https://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/sciencef/scifi155.pdf