Annals of Botany 91: 402-403, 2003
© 2003 Annals of Botany Company
Schulze, E.-D. (ed.) Carbon and nitrogen cycling in European forest ecosystems. Ecological studies, volume 142
Carbon and nitrogen cycling in European forest ecosystems. Ecological studies, volume 142.
Ernst-Detlef Schulze, ed.
Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer-Verlag, 2000.
£34 (softback). 500 pp. plus CD-ROM.
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The storage of carbon in forests is a contentious issue of ecological, policy and business concern, both nationally and internationally. Carbon dioxide in the global atmosphere is quantitatively the most significant greenhouse gas so the main concern of the protocol delivered at Kyoto in 1997 is to stabilize and then to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The most obvious and effective way of making this reduction is to decrease inputs to the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels. The alternative strategy to reducing the inputs is to enhance the outputs, and that is where forests and the associated controversy come in. At Kyoto, provision was made for removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by forests and its subsequent storage within forests, the so-called carbon sequestration by forests. This was a brave—some would say foolish—step by the Parties who, with their