Modeling Wood Product Carbon Flows in Southern US Pine Plantations: Implications for Carbon Storage

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Abstract Background Wood products continue to store carbon sequestered in forests after harvest and therefore play an important role in the total carbon storage associated with the forest sector. Trade-offs between carbon sequestration/storage in wood product pools and managed forest systems exist, and in order for forest sector carbon modeling to be meaningful, it must link wood product carbon with the specific forest system from which the products originate and have the ability to incorporate in situ and ex situ carbon synchronously over time. Results This study uses elements of a life-cycle assessment approach, tracing carbon from southern US loblolly timber harvests to emission, to create a decision support tool that practitioners can use to inform policy design around land- and bioproduct-based mitigation strategies. We estimate that wood products from annual loblolly and shortleaf pine timber harvests across the southern US store 29.7 MtC in the year they enter the market, and 4.6 MtC remain stored after 120 years. We estimate fossil fuel emissions from the extraction, transportation, and manufacturing of these wood products to be 32.5 MtCO2e year− 1. We found that composite logs, used to manufacture oriented strand board (OSB), were the most efficient log type for storing carbon, storing around 1.9 times as much carbon as saw logs per tonne of log over 120 years. Conclusions Results from our analysis suggest that adjusting rotation length based on individual site productivity, as well as extending the storage of carbon in key products, such as corrugated boxes, through longer lifespans, higher recycling rates, and less landfill decomposition could result in significant carbon gains. Our results also highlight the benefits of high site productivity to store more carbon in both in situ and ex situ pools and suggest that shorter rotations could be used to optimize carbon storage on sites when productivity is high.

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