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Land-use change can be a factor in CO 2 (carbon dioxide) atmospheric concentration, and is thus a contributor to global climate change. [14] IPCC estimates that land-use change (e.g. conversion of forest into agricultural land) contributes a net 1.6 ± 0.8 Gt carbon per year to the atmosphere.
Clearcutting contrasts with selective cutting, such as high grading, in which only commercially valuable trees are harvested, leaving all others. This practice can reduce the genetic viability of the forest over time, resulting in poorer or less vigorous offspring in the stand.
Initially, forest canopy cover decreases as a result of selective logging, which leads to a slowdown of forest growth, hydrological processes, and food supply. In addition to altering forest structure, selective logging also alters the carbon cycle, and other key biogeochemical processes that help to control and maintain forest productivity ...
Forests that are harvested prior to stand replacing events allow for the retention of carbon in manufactured forest products such as lumber. [62] However, only a portion of the carbon removed from logged forests ends up as durable goods and buildings. The remainder ends up as sawmill by-products such as pulp, paper, and pallets. [63]
Deforestation and forest area net change are not the same: the latter is the sum of all forest losses (deforestation) and all forest gains (forest expansion) in a given period. Net change, therefore, can be positive or negative, depending on whether gains exceed losses, or vice versa.
The Northwest Forest Plan region has an outsized role to play in mitigating the worst impacts of climate change by storing immense amounts of carbon in mature and old forests. Additional ...
Liberation cutting may be superficially similar to an overstory removal cutting. The major difference between these is that in the overstory removal, regeneration was deliberate and the best trees were saved for the final harvest. In the liberation cutting, the worst trees remain and regeneration was likely an afterthought to a logging operation.
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