Open AccessLarge‐scale bioenergy from additional harvest of forest biomass is neither sustainable nor greenhouse gas neutral
Author(s) -
Schulze ErnstDetlef,
Körner Christian,
Law Beverly E.,
Haberl Helmut,
Luyssaert Sebastiaan
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
gcb bioenergy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.378
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1757-1707
pISSN - 1757-1693
DOI - 10.1111/j.1757-1707.2012.01169.x
Subject(s) - greenhouse gas , biomass (ecology) , bioenergy , environmental science , agroforestry , fossil fuel , biofuel , carbon neutrality , agronomy , ecology , biology
Owing to the peculiarities of forest net primary production humans would appropriate ca. 60% of the global increment of woody biomass if forest biomass were to produce 20% of current global primary energy supply. We argue that such an increase in biomass harvest would result in younger forests, lower biomass pools, depleted soil nutrient stocks and a loss of other ecosystem functions. The proposed strategy is likely to miss its main objective, i.e. to reduce greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions, because it would result in a reduction of biomass pools that may take decades to centuries to be paid back by fossil fuel substitution, if paid back at all. Eventually, depleted soil fertility will make the production unsustainable and require fertilization, which in turn increases GHG emissions due to N 2 O emissions. Hence, large‐scale production of bioenergy from forest biomass is neither sustainable nor GHG neutral.