Conceptual pitfalls in the forest carbon debate

Forests stock up to 90% of the global terrestrial plant biomass carbon (C). Any rise or fall of that stock, but also its utilization for substituting fossil resources can influence the rate of atmospheric CO₂ enrichment. By employing the term 'C sequestration', the ongoing debate suffers, however, from an implicit confusion between (1) processes, rates or fluxes of C (e.g. tree growth) with (2) pools, stores or stocks of forest biomass C. Stock formation is driven by turnover, C durat