Scientific arguments for net carbon increase in soil organic matter in Dutch forests

If reporting of emissions associated with Forest Management becomes obligatory in the next commitment period, the Netherlands will try to apply the 'not-a-source' principle to carbon emissions from litter and soil in land under Forest Management. To give a scientific basis for the principle of carbon stock change being 'not-a-source', a review is first made of the methods and arguments of other countries and the acceptance or disapproval by UNFCCC experts. Second, we investigated whether available Dutch datasets and literature information confirm the claim that Dutch forest soils are not a carbon source. This review indeed showed convincing arguments for soil being a carbon sink in the Netherlands under forest management, based on a combination of (i) measurements in Loobos, (ii) literature on soil carbon increases based on repeated measurement in comparable areas, (iii) N retention assessments, assuming that the soil C/N ratio stays constant, (iv) European scale modelling approaches on soil carbon changes including the Netherlands and (v) argumentation from expected changes in climate and N deposition in the Netherlands, combined with the results from meta-analysis and modelling.