Site preparation and bioenergy harvest: How is the carbon stock in soil and biomass affected after 10 years?

Site preparation promotes tree growth and increases carbon storage in tree biomass. Extraction of bioenergy from the forest, such as slash and stumps, increases removal of biomass carbon after harvesting. Both measures aim to counteracting climate change, if they do not lead to significant loss of soil carbon, which is a common concern for site preparation and bioenergy harvest.

In this project, we investigate how the carbon stock in soil and biomass is affected by site preparation and slash and stump harvesting during the clear-cut and young forest phase.

We investigate fourteen experiments located across Sweden in the project. Modelling effect of slash and stump extraction on carbon balance is a supplement to the field investigation. Finally, a knowledge synthesis is carried out, aimed at stakeholders of forests and forestry in Sweden. The synthesis describes how the carbon stocks in soils are affected by site preparation and bioenergy harvest under Swedish conditions.