carbon stock in biomass of primary forests 
old primary forest in Chiloé (Image: AG Gutiérrez) The Kyoto Protocol led to the interest in determining carbon stock in forests. In fact, today is widely recognized that climate change mitigation is critical to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. However, the main focus of the estimates of forest carbon stock (representing approximately 50% of carbon from the biosphere) has focused on natural forests and plantations disturbed, ignoring the role that ancient forests can have on the carbon cycle. Recently it has been suggested that old growth forests (old-growth ) could be carbon sinks, which puts into question the ancient forests are neutral, ie that there exists a balance in emissions and catchments carbon by the ecosystem [1]. Moreover, in recent years have recognized that ancient forests are major carbon build up. Using published data from the world's primary forests, Keith and colleagues re-evaluated the stock of carbon in the biomass of primary forests. The authors found that forests with greater density of carbon in biomass are forests of Eucalyptus regnans in Australia. What's so important for the forests of the Southern Cone? Basically, the authors were able to determine that the temperate rain forests, such as the jungle Valdivia in Chile and Argentina, New Zealand forests and forests of the U.S. Pacific coast. UU. are the most massive forests of the world (with a greater accumulation of biomass). The total biomass of temperate rain forests of Chile and Argentina, according to published data, fluctuate between 326-571 t C ha -1 (works cited in this study were performed in the Cordillera de Piuchue, Chiloé and Paul Truce [2-5]) Common conditions that would determine that these accumulate as much biomass forests are climatic conditions, disturbance regime and life history traits of tree species. An equally important point is the prolonged absence of change in land use by humans, compared to temperate forests of Europe and the U.S. The authors of this study emphasize that preventing deforestation and forest degradation with large stocks of biomass could prevent significant emissions of carbon into the atmosphere. Also, management plans designed to recover the characteristics of primary forests may allow restoration of the carbon sequestration potential of these forests, which in fact should be considered as an activity mitigación del cambio climatico.
Fuente:
Keith, H., Mackey, B., & Lindenmayer, D. (2009). Re-evaluation of forest biomass carbon stocks and lessons from the world's most carbon-dense forests Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0901970106 .
Available
here
Citations: [1] Luyssaert, S., Schulze, ED, Borner, A., Knohl, A., Hessenmoller, D., Law, BE, Ciais, P., & Grace, J. (2008) Old-growth forests as global carbon sinks. Nature , 455, 213-215.
[2] Battles, JJ, Armesto, JJ, Vann, DR, Zarin, DJ, Aravena, JC, Perez, C., & Johnson, A.H. (2002) Vegetation composition, structure, and biomass of two unpolluted watersheds in the Cordillera de Piuchue, Chiloe Island, Chile. Plant Ecology , 158 , 5-19.
[3] Carmona, M.R., Armesto, J.J., Aravena, J.C., & Pérez, C.A. (2002) Coarse woody debris biomass in successional and primary temperate forests in Chiloé Island, Chile. Forest Ecology and Management , 164 , 265-275.
[4] Schlegel, B.C. & Donoso, P.J. (2008) Effects of forest type and stand structure on coarse woody debris in old-growth rainforests in the Valdivian Andes, south-central Chile. Forest Ecology and Management , 255, 1906-1914. 
[5] Vann, DR, Joshi, A., Perez, C., Johnson, AH, Frizano, J., Zarin, DJ, & Armesto, JJ (2002) Distribution and cycling of C, N, Ca, Mg, K and P in three pristine, old-growth forests in the Cordillera de Piuchue, Chile. Biogeochemistry , 60, 25-47.
