A recent article by Luyssaert et al. (Nature 562:259–262, 2018) analyses the climate impact of forest management in the European Union, considering both biogeochemical (i.e., greenhouse gases, GHG) and biophysical (e.g., albedo, transpiration, etc.) effects. Based on their findings, i.e. that additional net overall climate benefits from forest management would be modest, the authors conclude that the EU “should not rely on forest management to mitigate climate change”. We first explain that most of the additional EU GHG mitigation effort by 2030 is expected to come from emission reductions and only a very small part from forestry, even when forest bioenergy is allowed for. Nevertheless, the inclusion of forest management in climate change mitigation strategies is key to identifying the country-specific optimal mix, in terms of overall GHG balance, between strategies focused on conserving and/or enhancing the sink and strategies focused on using more wood to reduce emissions in other GHG sectors. Then, while acknowledging the importance that biophysical effects have on the climate, especially at the local and seasonal scale, we argue that the net annual biophysical climate impact of forest management in Europe remains more uncertain than the net CO2 impact. This has not been adequately emphasized by Luyssaert et al. (2018), leading to conclusions on the net overall climate impact of forest management that we consider premature and applied to a partially biased perception of European policy towards forestry and climate change. To avoid further confusion in the debate on how forestry may contribute to mitigating climate change, a more constructive dialogue between the scientific community and policy makers is needed.

中文翻译：

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论欧洲森林对实现气候目标的现实贡献。

Luyssaert等人的最新文章。（Nature 562：259–262，2018）分析了欧盟森林管理对气候的影响，同时考虑了生物地球化学（如温室气体，GHG）和生物物理（如反照率，蒸腾作用等）的影响。根据他们的发现，即从森林管理中获得的额外的总体净气候收益将是适度的，作者得出结论，欧盟“不应依靠森林管理来缓解气候变化”。首先，我们解释说，到2030年，欧盟在减少温室气体方面的额外努力大部分将来自减排，即使允许使用森林生物能源，也只有很小一部分来自林业。尽管如此，将森林管理纳入减缓气候变化战略对于从温室气体总体平衡，在旨在保护和/或增加汇的策略与旨在使用更多木材减少其他温室气体排放量的策略之间。然后，尽管我们认识到生物物理效应对气候的重要性，尤其是在局部和季节尺度上，但我们认为，欧洲森林经营对生物物理气候的净年度影响仍比对二氧化碳的净影响更为不确定。Luyssaert等人尚未充分强调这一点。（2018），得出关于森林管理对整个气候的净影响的结论，我们认为该结论为时过早，并应用于欧洲对林业和气候变化政策的偏见。为了避免在关于林业如何减轻气候变化的贡献的辩论中造成进一步的混乱，