We use cookies on our website. Some are necessary for the operation of the website. You can also allow cookies for statistical purposes. You can adjust the data protection settings or agree to all cookies directly.
Investigation of rootmass of pines (Pinus sylvestris L.) in Brandenburg (Greenhouse gas monitoring)
Project
Project code: TI-WO-08-PID1588
Contract period: 01.01.2011
- 31.12.2013
Purpose of research: Applied research
The forests in Germany store huge amounts of carbon. Thus they are influencing climate change, but they are also affected by it. Up to one third of the carbon can be found in the roots systems of trees. However, quantitative studies on below-ground biomass of larger Scots pines are yet not done in Germany.
The main task of the project was to develop a biomass function for the root systems of Scots pines. This function should serve to determine accurately the biomass and the carbon stock below ground.
The developed biomass function increases the precision of biomass estimates that should be used for the National Inventory Report (NIR) 2017. This is a major contribution for improving the greenhouse gas emission reporting. The results shall be published in the Emission Factors Database (EFDB) of the IPCC. Additionally, new insights in root growth and soil structure under various climatic and site conditions are given.
Roots systems from 43 pines with an diameters at breast-hight (dbh) between 7 and 52 cm were excavated and examined for this project. For the determination of above and belowground biomass we pulled down the sample trees and measured the excavated root systems. Root biomass functions can be derived from the collected data to calculate the belowground biomass from data above ground like dbh and tree height.
Section overview
Subjects
- Silviculture
- Climate Change