Dean2016: Intensive forestry reduces soil carbon

Dean and co-workers review the literature on soil carbon content in intensive forestry. They look at three classes of studies: empirical short and long-term studies and modelling studies, typically over long periods. Short-time studies are inconclusive since emissions fluctuate around zero. Longer period empirical studies agree with modelling studies that in the long run the amount of carbon in the soil decreases when the primary forest is replaced by plantations and harvested periodically. Read the whole article in Global Change Biology.