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The impact of tropospheric ozone on landscape-level merchantable biomass and ecosystem carbon in Canadian forests

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Abstract

Studies have shown that tropospheric ozone (O3) impacts trees in various ways, including growth reductions. To date, the landscape-level response of Canadian forests carbon (C) to O3 exposure has not been quantified. We used a modified version of the Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector and data from Aspen FACE to quantify the landscape-level impacts of different O3 exposure modelling experiments. The main strengths of our approach consisted of using the most complete empirical data available to estimate the amount and location of forest C across Canada, as well as explicitly simulating the consequences of fire, insect, and harvest disturbances on forest C dynamics. These disturbances lead to younger forests and, considering trees sensitivity to O3 exposure to decrease with age, thus result in higher landscape-level modelled impacts for the same O3 levels. Despite various sources of uncertainty, our results indicate that even under a modelling experiment where O3 increases continuously over four decades, the landscape-level impacts on the merchantable biomass and ecosystem C remain limited. Our results also suggest that the current direct impacts of O3 on Canadian forests are likely below detection at the landscape level.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the Air Quality Model Application Section (Meteorological Service of Canada, Environment Canada) for providing us with the 4 th highest O 3 AURAMS data. We are appreciative of the comments provided by Dr. Andrzej Bytnerowicz, Pr. Sagar Krupa, and Dr. Allan Legge on the development of the ERF and their implementation into CBM-CFS3. The Regulatory Analysis and Valuation Division (Economic Analysis Directorate, Environment Canada) provided funds that enabled this study. The Canadian Forest Service of Natural Resources Canada provided support for model development and analyses. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for suggestions that have improved the manuscript, as well as G. Grill and B. Mehdi for helpful comments.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Author notes

  1. Jean-Sébastien Landry

    Present address: Department of Geography, McGill University, 805 rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montréal, QC, H3A 2K6, Canada

  2. Kevin E. Percy

    Present address: K. E. Percy Air Quality Effects Consulting Ltd., 32-230 Wilson Drive, Fort McMurray, AB, T9H 0A4, Canada

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Regulatory Analysis and Valuation Division, Environment Canada, 10 rue Wellington, 24e étage, Gatineau, QC, K1A 0H3, Canada

    Jean-Sébastien Landry

  2. Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada, 506 West Burnside Road, Victoria, BC, V8Z 1M5, Canada

    Eric T. Neilson & Werner A. Kurz

  3. Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada, 1350 Regent Street, Fredericton, NB, E3B 5P7, Canada

    Kevin E. Percy

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  1. Jean-Sébastien Landry
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  3. Werner A. Kurz
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Correspondence to Jean-Sébastien Landry.

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Communicated by R. Matyssek.

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Landry, JS., Neilson, E.T., Kurz, W.A. et al. The impact of tropospheric ozone on landscape-level merchantable biomass and ecosystem carbon in Canadian forests. Eur J Forest Res 132, 71–81 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-012-0656-z

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