• DOI:10.1890/080049
• Corpus ID: 21737588

Fuel treatment effects on tree‐based forest carbon storage and emissions under modeled wildfire scenarios

@article{Hurteau2009FuelTE,
  title={Fuel treatment effects on tree‐based forest carbon storage and emissions under modeled wildfire scenarios},
  author={Matthew D. Hurteau and Malcolm P. North},
  journal={Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment},
  year={2009},
  volume={7},
  pages={409-414}
}

• M. Hurteau, M. North
• Published 1 October 2009
• Environmental Science
• Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment

Forests are viewed as a potential sink for carbon (C) that might otherwise contribute to climate change. It is unclear, however, how to manage forests with frequent fire regimes to maximize C storage while reducing C emissions from prescribed burns or wildfire. We modeled the effects of eight different fuel treatments on tree-based C storage and release over a century, with and without wildfire. Model runs show that, after a century of growth without wildfire, the control stored the most C. However, when wildfire was included in the model, the control had the largest total C emission and largest reduction in live-tree-based C stocks. In model runs including wildfire, the final amount of tree-based C sequestered was most affected by the stand structure initially produced by the different fuel treatments. In wildfire-prone forests, tree-based C stocks were best protected by fuel treatments that produced a low-density stand structure dominated by large, fire-resistant pines.