C stocks in abandoned short rotation forestry (SRF) plantations in Central Italy.

At the end of the last century, European Union (EU) energy policies encouraged the use of dedicated short rotation forestry (SRF) plantations in member countries in which fast-growing woody species are grown for energy purposes. Recently, in Italy some SRF plantations developed in the 90s have been abandoned or managed more extensively for economic and environmental reasons. However, these abandoned plantations can play a key role in biodiversity conservation and carbon storage. The present study is aimed to estimate carbon stock (C-stock) in living biomass and deadwood in three abandoned SRF plantations in Central Italy. The C-stock was estimated in three different 20-years SRF plantations (hybrid poplar, willow, black locust) located on the same site and unmanaged for 15 years. The results show a C-stock considering three of five C pools equal to: 47.30 MgC ha⁻¹ for hybrid poplar (65.3% in biomass and 34.7% in deadwood respectively), 23.02 MgC ha⁻¹ for willow (77.6% and 22.4% respectively), and 80.41 MgC ha⁻¹ for black locust (95.9% and 4.1% respectively). Outcomes of this research offer support for the forest restoration practices of similar abandoned SRF plantations. The application of extensive management techniques and the development of the naturalization process will ensure the role of biodiversity reservoir of these plantations, helping their evolution toward semi-natural systems mainly oriented to biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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