***********************************************
RAINFOREST/CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS TODAY
Old-Growth Forests May Continue Removing Carbon
***********************************************
Climate Ark and Rainforest Portal projects of Ecological
Internet, Inc.

http://www.rainforestportal.org/ -- Rainforest Portal
http://www.climateark.org/ -- Climate Ark Climate Change Portal

December 2, 2006
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet

A new study finds old-growth forest store and continue to remove
far more carbon than previously thought making their
preservation (strict protection with no industrial management) a
higher priority in carbon trading, tackling global warming and
forest conservation. The conventional scientific wisdom has long
been that while old-growth forests (older than 100 years old)
and primary forests (never been logged or otherwise
significantly disturbed) store much carbon and are important
carbon sinks, that they no longer remove much new carbon, so
essentially their removal and release of carbon are in balance.

A new study questions this assumption with great importance for
forest conservation and climate change policy adequate to ensure
global ecological sustainability for the foreseeable future. The
new study found that a 400-year-old forest in southern China is
soaking up carbon from the atmosphere considerably faster than
expected, most of which is being stored for the long term in the
top levels of the soil. The results, which are still preliminary
in that they have not been repeated worldwide, nonetheless show
the dynamism of carbon in ancient forests, and our continued
lack of knowledge regarding basic planetary ecological processes
of great importance to our survival and well-being.

This finding, that ancient forests may continue to remove
substantial carbon, along with recent studies showing selective
logging of ancient forests releases extremely large amounts of
carbon and forever damages carbon removal mechanisms, sheds
grave doubts upon forest conservation strategies dependent upon
"certification" of the environmental sensitivity of logging
including ancient forests.

One of the great tasks of our, and all, time is protecting and
aiding the expansion of all remaining old-growth forests and
primary forests which for sake of simplicity I often refer to as
"ancient forests". These evolutionary shrines hold untold wisdom
deep in their genes, high above us in their vibrant canopies,
and deep within the darkness of their roots and soils. There
loss AND diminishment must stop if there is to be any chance to
sustain the planet and human society. Ecological Internet will
soon launch a long-term campaign targeting the Forest
Stewardship Council and their apologists that refuse to support
efforts to end ancient forest logging.

Continuing to diminish through industrial "selective" logging
the world’s 20% of ancient forests which have not already been
lost will be a death-knell for the Earth and humanity. Solving
climate change and water scarcity is intimately entwined with
establishing permanent protection (with compensation for those
affected) for all remaining ancient old-growth and primary
forests. Attacking the troika of ancient forest loss and
diminishment, climate change including dramatically reducing
emissions, and protecting water systems and provision of potable
water as a human right will decide whether humans have more time
as a species and how they spend it.
g.b.

Comments to:
http://www.climateark.org/blog/2006/12/oldgrowth_forests_may_continue.asp#commen\
ts

*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

ITEM #1
Title: Old-growth forests 'are key carbon sinks'
Source: Copyright 2006, SciDev.Net
Date: December 1, 2006
Byline: Hawk Jia

Old-growth forest might store far more carbon than previously
thought, making their preservation a higher priority in carbon
trading and other efforts to tackle global warming.

Classified as forests at least 100 years old, old-growth forests
are widespread in tropical and subtropical developing countries.
Until now, they were not thought to absorb and store significant
amounts of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

In a study published in Science this week, however, scientists
show that a 400-year-old forest in southern China is soaking up
carbon from the atmosphere considerably faster than expected.

Knowing this, developing countries with abundant old-growth
forest cover could ask rich countries for compensation through
the global carbon trade, said team leader Guoyi Zhou.

The finding could also help reduce deforestation in the
developing world, added Zhou, from the Guangdong Province-based
Dinghushan Forest Station, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

So far, protecting forests from deforestation is not included in
the global carbon trade, a mechanism enabling industrialised
countries to pay developing nations for reducing the latter's
carbon dioxide emissions (see 'Trading carbon could reduce
deforestation').

In the study, Zhou and colleagues discovered that the top 20
centimetres of soil in old-growth forests can contain much more
carbon than people had expected.

Until now, scientists believed that carbon taken up by old-
growth forests from the atmosphere was balanced by the carbon
they release, partly because of the large amounts of decomposing
organic matter in their soils, 'unlocking' significant amounts
of carbon.

The group of scientists measured carbon in the soil collected
between 1979 and 2003. They found that organic carbon
concentrations in the top 20 centimetres of the soil increased
in that period from about 1.4 per cent to 2.35 per cent.

"We began to collect data on soil organic carbon in the mid-
1970s, which enabled us to make this comparison," says Zhang
Deqiang, one of the researchers and an associate professor at
Dinghushan Forest Station.

The forces driving this rise are not yet clear, and the authors
say their findings point to the need for further research on the
complex responses of old-growth forest to global environmental
change.

"We estimate that the increased acidity resulting from
industrial pollution might have curbed the activities of micro-
organisms, hence reducing the speed of soil degradation process.
But this needs more systematic studies," Zhang told SciDev.Net.


ITEM #2
Title: Study finds unusual carbon rise in Chinese old-growth
forest soil
Source: Copyright 2006, Associated Press
Date: December 1, 2006

Researchers have found soils in an old-growth forest in southern
China are storing carbon at a rapid rate.

If common to the soils of other old-growth forests, the finding
could add combating global warming to the reasons for preserving
them from logging, some scientists say.

The finding from soils in southern China goes against the
generally accepted idea that old-growth forests are in balance,
giving up as much carbon through decomposition as they take in
from falling leaves and dying roots.

Why the soils act as a carbon sink remains unknown, but the
study in the Friday edition of the journal Science gives a new
way to think about how carbon works in old-growth forests, said
Xuli Tang, a scientist with the South China Botanical Garden in
Guangzhou, China, and co-author of the study.

"No country in the world has been trying to (preserve) old
growth forest from carbon sink perspective because of the
existence of the traditional paradigm," although China is doing
some large-scale forest restoration projects that could serve as
significant carbon sinks, he said by e-mail.

Many scientists believe that an increase in carbon dioxide and
other greenhouse gases from burning oil and coal is causing
rising temperatures around the globe that are changing the
climate, melting polar ice caps, raising sea levels and
contributing to a growing number of plant and animal species
going extinct.

One strategy for combating global warming is finding ways to
store carbon so it is not released into the atmosphere.

By virtue of their age, old-growth forest soils are generally
believed to be in balance, with the amount of carbon added to
the soil from falling leaves, branches and dying roots offset by
an equal amount of carbon released by the microbes that eat the
leaves, branches and roots.

The research was conducted in the Dinghushan Biosphere Reserve
in the southern China province of Guangdong, which is covered
with 400-year-old subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest.

Taking a total of 230 samples over 24 years from the top eight
inches of soil, the researchers found organic carbon levels went
from about 1.4 percent in 1979 to 2.35 percent in 2003, an
increase of 68 percent.

John Aber, professor of environmental studies at the University
of New Hampshire, who did not take part in the study, said he
was skeptical of the results, because they go against the
prevailing research and are based on a relatively small number
of samples.

However, given the high rate of change found in the study, the
increased carbon may be coming from some recent change in the
environment, such as industrial pollution, he said.

That could happen two different ways, he said. Increased
nitrogen in the air could fertilize the forest, leading to more
leaves falling to the ground and increasing carbon in the soil.
An increase in toxins falling to the forest floor or increased
acidity would slow down decomposition, leaving more carbon in
the soil.

"This isn't business as usual for an old-growth forest," said
Aber. "If this can be found to be generally the case in old-
growth forests everywhere, it could have huge implications.

"I think at this point it is an unusual result, and would have
to be repeated and documented in other old-growth forests."

Tang said that over the course of the study, the researchers
observed a decrease in the amount of leaves and branches falling
to the forest floor, a decrease in soil moisture, and an
increase in soil acidity.

Christopher Field, director of the Carnegie Institution
Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University, did not
take part in the study, but has worked in the Dinghushan
Biosphere Reserve. He said the study may have caught the forest
soils during an upswing in carbon storage, which is unlikely to
be sustained.

"I think that this doesn't really change anything about the way
we think of old-growth forests," he said. "I guess it's solid
evidence for the emerging consensus that old-growth forests are
quite dynamic, that they have high rates of growth, high rates
of decomposition, and at any period the balance between those
could result in a net carbon storage or a net carbon loss."