Releasing of soil carbon into the atmosphere due to calamitous damage of forest stands

From the year 2022, FGMRI is coordinating the NAZV project „Changes in forest soils on clearcuts – impact of deforestation on carbon sequestration, nutrient balance and risk elements mobility”.

Other two participants in the project are the Czech University of Agriculture in Prague, the Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources and Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology.

The objectives of this three years long research project (2022–2024) are as follows:

• To evaluate changes in forest soils on clearcuts, quantify changes in carbon sequestration and predict their development with the progress of bark beetle outbreak.
• To model expected changes in soil carbon sequestration due to changes in the species composition of forests.
• To evaluate the risk of nutrient loss and release of potentially risk elements from forest soils to surface waters.
• To develop recommendations for forest management supporting soil carbon sequestration and other soil functions on clearcuts.

Due to importance of this project, a considerable attention to its solution is also given by the public media, for example by information presented to the public in an accessible form in the online periodical “Brno Daily” from June 5, 2022, to read here.