Model analysis of the effects of soil age, fires and harvesting on the carbon storage of boreal forest soils

Summary Potential causes for changes in the amounts of carbon (C) stored in the soils of boreal forests were studied by measuring the C in the soil along a 5000‐year chronosequence in coastal western Finland and using a simple dynamic model of decomposition. The amount of soil C stabilized at an age of about 2000 years. This suggests that the youth of many boreal soils does not make them sinks for atmospheric C. Simulated repeated fires kept the...