Carbon accumulation in European forests: among evidences and uncertainties

A summary on findings recently published on Nature Geoscience (Ciais et al. 2008) is provided. This research, according with the latest studies, confirms the trend of European forests to form a sink of carbon. The sustained accumulation of carbon may result from the combined positive effects of the new favourable environmental conditions and changed forest management in the last five decades. Although this result seems encouragingly, numerous uncertainties still remain on the estimate, on the determinant processes and on the capacity that positive carbon balance could be maintained in the future. For example an increase of renewable energies demand by 2020, as proposed by EU, should double the wood demand for biomass energy, lowering considerably the carbon gains achieved in the last fifty years.