UO-1 (GS1): Unità Operativa: Centro Comune di Ricerca, Ispra, Progetto GHG-AFOLU nella Unitá Cambiamenti Climatici TECHNICAL SUMMARY

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1 Progetto Kyoto Ricerca sui cambiamenti climatici e il controllo dei gas serra in Lombardia Linea Stima e mappatura dei C-sink e dei C-stock Coordinatore di linea Dr. G. Seufert Relazione III anno di attività Executive Summary (4/2/28) UO-1 (GS1): Unità Operativa: Centro Comune di Ricerca, Ispra, Progetto GHG-AFOLU nella Unitá Cambiamenti Climatici TECHNICAL SUMMARY Measures of sinks and stocks of carbon and other GHG in typical Lombard ecosystems PREMISE Following the priorities emerged during the planning of the third year of activities, this Unit in agreement with Dr. Günther Seufert - has partially readdressed the activities originally foreseen. In particular, the modifications have slightly enlarged the original scope of the analysis, moving towards an estimate of the C stock and sink of the main forest typologies in Lombardy (issue 1). This analysis, occurred in the third year of the project, has complemented the research activities carried out in the first two years regarding the whole GHG emissions in short rotation forestry poplar plantations (issue 2).

2 1. PRELIMINARY ESTIMATE OF C STOCKS AND C SINKS IN THE MAIN FOREST TYPOLOGIES IN LOMBARDY Introduction The activity of preliminary estimate of C stocks and C sinks in the main forest typologies in Lombardy has been based on the elaboration of the data included by ERSAF in the databases of the Piani di Assestamento Forestale (PAF) of the Lombardy Region. The elaboration of these databases has required a complex work of selection and harmonization of the available information, with the aim to have an analysis based on reliable and homogeneous data. During this work, the initial sample of Ha of forest (24% of regional forest area) has been progressively reduced to about 4,5% of the regional forest area, including both coppices and high forest stands. From this database we have extracted for the main forest typologies the values of standing living biomass and the mean annual biomass increment, subsequently converted in to values of C stocks and sinks through the use of species-specific biomass expansion factors. Given that the examined database is not complete, results should be considered with caution. However, we think that this analysis has achieved some important results, including: 1) We showed the overall growth dynamics of main forest typologies in Lombardia before and after ) For some selected forest typologies we obtained reliable estimates of C stock and C sink 3) We built a working framework that could be further developed in the future to obtain more and better results. Below are shown some selected results for the high forest stands and the coppices

3 - High forests PICEO-FAGGETI QUERCO-CARPINETI E CARPINETO CON OSTRIA PINETE QUERCETI + CASTAGNETI RIMBOSCHIMENTI ABIETETI ACERI-FRASSINETI e ACERI- TIGLIETO FAGGETE BETULETI e CORILETI LARICETI PECCETE Fig. 1. High forests - proportion of different forest typologies analysed (in terms of area) Most of the examined high forests comprised peccete (69%), abieteti (19%) and lariceti (9%). For this reasons, the estimates of C stocks and sinks are shown below only for these typologies. Per questo motivo di seguito si riportano le stime di C stock e C sink ed i dati di provvigione solo di C stock (t C/ha) C sink (t C/ha/anno) 2 1 Abieteti Peccete Lariceti Abieteti Fig. 2. Estimates of C stock and sink for abieteti, peccete and lariceti. Peccete Lariceti

4 Coppice QUERCETI + CASTAGNETI 19% ACERI-FRASSINETI e ACERI-TIGLIETO 6% BETULETI e CORILETI 6% ROBINIETI 2% FAGGETE 23% ORNIO-OSTRIETI 44% Fig. 3. Coppices - proportion of different forest typologies analysed (in terms of area) Given the relatively low number of data available for coppices, we considered reliable only data for ornio-ostrieti and faggete. Data of C stock and C sink of these forest typologies are shown below. 8 2 C stock (t C/ha) C sink (t C/ha/anno) 1 Orno- Ostrieti Faggete Orno- Ostrieti Faggete Fig. 4. Coppices - estimates of C stock and sink for ornio-ostrieti and faggete..

5 Conclusions Although results should be considered with caution, it is interesting to note some common pattern. In particular, when comparing C stock and C sink before and after 199 (see Relazione finale for detailed data), it emerges the tendency of higher C stocks and more stable C sink in the second period. This trend appear explainable with the progressive ageing of forests in Lombardy, due to the fact that since the 6s these forests have been less and less harvested. 2. GHG BALANCE IN A POPOLAR SHORT ROTATION FORESTRY PLANTATION During the three years of the project we performed a research on a poplar SRF cultivation located in Vigevano (PV). In particular, we analysed the C balance of the whole ecosystem with the eddy covariance technique (complemented by measures of CH4 and N2O emissions from soils) and calculated the biomass growth. In addition, we calculated an overall GHG budget for the examined SRF plantation including all CO 2, CH 4 and N 2 O emissions from agriculture machinery use (ploughing, harrowing, planting, harvest, irrigation, fertiliser and pesticides spearing), estimated according to IPCC methodology. The annual carbon sequestration has been estimated as 15.2 and 26.4 t CO 2 ha -1, respectively for the first and second growing season. The resulting annual GHG emission, in terms of tons of CO 2 equivalent ha -1, have been estimated in 1.3 and.59 for the first and second growing season, respectively. Overall, these results indicate a strong carbon sink in the examined SRF plantation. This sink, accompanied by relatively small emissions from cultivation practices, has determined a very positive GHG balance. However, it should be considered that the high productivity of the examined plantation largely derives from a good fertility of soils. To further extend the GHG budget analysis, we modelled the GHG emissions/absorptions for 1 years in SRF and in a a conventional, non-coppiced, poplar plantation. Based on data obtained from experimental experience on from the literature, two level of productivity were hypothesized based on the level of potential productivity and intensity of the cultural practices (high and low inputs). The resulting CO 2 uptake was m -3 ha -1 a -1 (equal to t CO 2 ha -1 ) for the poplar plantation and t dry matter ha -1 a -1 (equal to t CO 2 ha -1 ) for SRF. On the other hand, the CO 2, CH 4 and N 2 O emissions from agricultural treatments and pesticide/fertilizer production resulted to t of CO2 equivalent for poplar plantation and for SRF. Overall, these results indicate a very good GHG balance for both the cultivations and the different scenarios analyzed.