Carbon Consequences of Disturbance in the West Coast U.S. States

Over the past 30 years, the West Coast states of California, Oregon and Washington have experienced many extreme events, changes in forest management, and climate anomalies that affect fire emissions, carbon stocks and net carbon uptake by terrestrial ecosystems. Results from inventories, intensive studies of fire effects, and integration of modeling and remote sensing data over the region indicate that management practices have had the largest effect on carbon balances compared with fire and direct effects of drought on carbon uptake. Fire emissions are primarily from fine surface fuels, and remaining material takes decades to decompose, particularly in the drier portion of the region. Biomass is about half the potential, primarily due to harvest. Fossil fuel emissions still far outweigh the net biome production of terrestrial ecosystems in each state, with CA emissions an order of magnitude higher than the other two states.