Valuing the Impact of Forest Disturbances on the Climate Regulation Service of Western U.S. Forests

Raymundo Marcos-Martinez, José J. Sánchez, Lorie Srivastava, Natthanij Soonsawad and Dominique Bachelet
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Raymundo Marcos-Martinez: CSIRO Land and Water, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
José J. Sánchez: Pacific Southwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Riverside, CA 92507, USA
Lorie Srivastava: Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
Natthanij Soonsawad: CSIRO Land and Water, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
Dominique Bachelet: Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 2, 1-12

Abstract: The protection and expansion of forest carbon sinks are critical to achieving climate-change mitigation targets. Yet, the increasing frequency and severity of forest disturbances challenge the sustainable provision of forest services. We investigated patterns of forest disturbances’ impacts on carbon sinks by combining spatial datasets of forest carbon sequestration from biomass growth and emissions from fire and bark beetle damage in the western United States (U.S.) and valued the social costs of forest carbon losses. We also examined potential future trends of forest carbon sinks under two climate-change projections using a global vegetation model. We found that forest carbon losses from bark-beetle damage were larger than emissions from fires between 2003 and 2012. The cumulative social costs of forest carbon losses ranged from USD 7 billion to USD 72 billion, depending on the severity of global warming and the discount rate. Forest carbon stocks could increase around 5% under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 or 7% under RCP 8.5 by 2091 relative to 2011 levels, mostly in forests with high net primary productivity. These results indicate that spatially explicit management of forest disturbances may increase forest carbon sinks, thereby improving opportunities to achieve critical climate-change mitigation goals.

Keywords: forest health; climate change; ecosystem services; sustainable forest management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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