Forest Ecology and Ecosystems Lab
Modeling carbon budgets in large terrestrial ecosystems
We join ecosystem process models with industrial life cycle assessment to follow carbon through forests, wood and paper products, and the atmosphere, and to find where sequestration can rise and where emissions can fall.
What we set out to do
Forest Ecology and Ecosystems Lab, University of Wisconsin Madison
Biogeochemical ecosystem process models simulate current and future forest dynamics, but most do so only for a single canopy type, and over a limited spatial extent. Those limits mean that mixed stands, canopy succession, and understory dynamics cannot be modeled across the landscape, a real handicap when the question is how a whole region stores and releases carbon.
Our work applies ecosystem process models and industrial ecosystem life cycle assessment, together with coupled biological and industrial process based models, to simulate carbon budgets on three fronts.
- Biological ecosystems, to identify opportunities to increase carbon sequestration by terrestrial ecosystems.
- Industrial ecosystems, to identify opportunities to decrease carbon emissions.
- The whole forest system, biological and industrial together, under different natural and human disturbance regimes.
Two cycles, one budget
A forest is not only trees
Biological
The forest ecosystem cycle
Photosynthesis, respiration, growth, and decomposition move carbon between the atmosphere, vegetation, and soil. Forests hold far more carbon in vegetation and soil than other terrestrial ecosystems, so getting this cycle right matters far beyond the stand.
See the forest carbon cyclesIndustrial
The forest products cycle
Harvest moves wood fiber to mills and markets, where carbon is stored in products or released through processing and use. Life cycle analysis quantifies those burdens and points to the largest sources of greenhouse gases.
See life cycle analysisTogether
One whole system balance
Net ecosystem production describes the biological side. Industrial emissions describe the rest. Subtracting one from the other gives the whole system carbon balance for a region and its wood and paper economy.
See model outputsInside the model
Eight linked topics
- 01Biome BGCThe core biogeochemical and ecophysiological model
- 02Water CycleHow soil water sets the ceiling on growth
- 03C and NCarbon and nitrogen locked together in litter and soil
- 04Forest C CyclesBiological and industrial cycles as a single whole
- 05BiomesBoreal, temperate, and tropical forests
- 06Ecosystem Process ModelsFrom Forest BGC to a multi vegetation Biome BGC
- 07Life Cycle AnalysisAccounting for a product from raw material to final fate
- 08Evolution of Biome BGCTwenty five years of model development
Where the numbers land
Applied model outputs
Disturbance
Effects of wildfire
The model reproduces observed changes in leaf area, net primary production, and carbon stocks along a boreal forest wildfire chronosequence, and traces how fire reshapes the carbon and water budgets of a region.
Read about wildfire outputsProducts
Greenhouse gas life cycle
From dimensional lumber to magazines, a life cycle assessment of greenhouse gases shows where emissions arise across the forest products chain and where they can be reduced.
Read about GHG LCARecent field notes
From the Carbon Blog
December 2010
Law and the GeoWeb
A workshop on intellectual property and geographic data in the Internet era, co sponsored by Creative Commons and the USGS.
Read the noteDecember 2010
A whole system carbon balance
A regional whole system carbon balance for a 600,000 hectare temperate forest in Northern Wisconsin.
Read the noteMay 2010
Data considerations in science
Why ready access to well documented data decides how fast ecosystem science can move.
Read the noteWork with the lab
We welcome questions about the model, data requests, and collaboration on life cycle assessment for forest products. Contact the team to start a conversation.