Clearcutting Destabilizes Forest Soil
Clear-cutting loosens up carbon stored in forest soils, increasing the chances it will return to the
atmosphere as carbon dioxide and contribute to climate change, a Dartmouth College study
shows.
The researchers collected soils from recently clear-cut stands and from older forests, and tested
carbon from the soil. The results showed that mature forest stands stored significantly more soil
organic carbon than did soils from clear-cut stands.
"Clear-cutting forests has an effect of mobilizing the carbon, making it more likely to leave the
soil and end up in the atmosphere," says senior author Andrew Friedland, a professor of
environmental studies. "These findings are important because differences in the relative
distribution of carbon in organo-mineral pools in mature and cut forests may inform our
understanding of soil organic matter stability and bioavailability, microbial decomposition and
carbon dioxide production in ecosystems after clear-cutting."
Soil is the largest terrestrial carbon pool, a pool which can be disturbed by logging, farming, and
ranching. The way we manage land can increase the amount of carbon stored in soil.