The general aim of Project A3, from the CRC for Greenhouse Accounting, is to develop data that will underpin an accounting system to be developed for carbon storage in harvested wood products. The study described here is part of the subproject “Carbon budget for tree harvesting and conversion to forest products”.
The sub-project aims to develop wastage and energy input data on the harvesting of wood species of commercial importance in Australia and on the manufacture of a range of wood products – sawn hardwood, sawn softwood, particleboard, MDF and plywood.
This study follows the fate of carbon in about 50 Eucalyptus obliqua trees, of a range of diameter classes, from an experimental coupe in the Warra LTER (the only Tasmanian site chosen for the study), from harvesting through conversion and use to disposal. An assessment of total above-ground biomass in the harvested stand is also being made, by weighing understorey trees to obtain an average mass by diameter class.
