Forest Carbon Cycles

The forest carbon (C) cycle is an aggregate of a biological or a forest ecosystem cycle and an industrial or a forest products cycle as depicted in the figure below.

A majority of forest C cycle research has focused on the biological component. Forests contain a disproportionately greater amount of C in the vegetation (90%) and soil (80%) than other terrestrial ecosystems. Forest ecosystems assimilate 67% of the total CO2 removed from the atmosphere by all terrestrial ecosystems. Because forests are such an important component of the global C cycle, it is important to correctly model the C cycle of the biomes of the world.