Expansion of US wood pellet industry points to positive trends but the need for continued monitoring
Autor: | Ashkan Mirzaee, Ronald G. McGarvey, Dallas Burtraw, Francisco X. Aguilar, Stephen R. Shifley |
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Rok vydání: | 2020 |
Předmět: |
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
020209 energy Land management lcsh:Medicine 02 engineering and technology Energy and society 01 natural sciences Domestic market Article Agricultural economics Environmental impact Procurement Pellet 0202 electrical engineering electronic engineering information engineering media_common.cataloged_instance European union lcsh:Science Carbon stock 0105 earth and related environmental sciences media_common Multidisciplinary Forest inventory business.industry lcsh:R Forestry Renewable energy Environmental social sciences Sustainability Environmental science lcsh:Q business |
Zdroj: | Scientific Reports Scientific Reports, Vol 10, Iss 1, Pp 1-17 (2020) |
ISSN: | 2045-2322 |
Popis: | Implementation of the European Union Renewable Energy Directive has triggered exponential growth in trading of pelletized wood fibers. Over 18 million tons of wood pellets were traded by EU member countries in 2018 of which a third were imported from the US. Concerns exist about negative impacts on US forests but systematic assessments are currently lacking. We assessed variability in fundamental attributes for timberland structure and carbon stocks within 123 procurement landscapes of wood pellet mills derived from over 38 thousand forest inventory plots in the eastern US from 2005 to 2017. We found more carbon stocks in live trees, but a fewer number of standing-dead trees, associated with the annual operation of large-scale wood pellet mills. In the US coastal southeast—where US pellet exports to the EU originate—there were fewer live and growing-stock trees and less carbon in soils with every year of milling operation than in the rest of the eastern US—which supplies the domestic market. Greater overlap of mills’ procurement areas exhibited discernible increments across selected carbon stocks. These trends likely reflect more intensive land management practices. Localized forest impacts associated with the wood pellet industry should continue to be monitored. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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