Forests are the largest terrestrial carbon stock, and disturbance regimes can have large effects on the structure and function of forests. Many dry temperate forests in the western United States are adapted to a regime of frequent, low‐to‐moderate severity fire. The disruption of this disturbance regime over the last century has shifted forest conditions, making them more susceptible to high‐severity fire. Fuel treatments have been shown to effectively reduce wildfire hazard, often with co‐benefits to ecological values. However, the effects of fuel treatments on forest carbon are complex, often characterized by direct costs (e.g., carbon emissions from prescribed fire) and wildfire‐contingent benefits (increased resistance of live tree carbon to wildfire). In this study, we employ risk‐sensitive carbon accounting and empirical data from a replicated field experiment to evaluate the stand‐scale carbon effects of four management regimes over a 14‐yr period in a historically frequent‐fire adapted forest. All three active treatment regimes immediately increased stable live tree carbon stocks over no‐treatment controls. In most contexts examined, mechanical‐only or no‐treatment controls will maximize expected total carbon stocks when incorporating wildfire risk and the carbon stability of live biomass, dead biomass, and offsite forest products, although we acknowledge our wildfire modeling may underestimate C losses, particularly in the control stands. Undoubtedly, many other ecosystem and social values besides carbon will be important factors that influence fuel and restoration treatments.

中文翻译：

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内华达山脉常火森林中潜在的野火和碳稳定性：长期研究的权衡

森林是最大的陆地碳储量，扰动机制可能会对森林的结构和功能产生很大影响。美国西部的许多干燥温带森林都适应了频繁，低度至中度严重火灾的情况。上个世纪，这种干扰制度的破坏改变了森林条件，使其更容易受到高强度火灾的影响。业已证明，燃料处理可有效减少野火危害，并通常具有生态价值。但是，燃料处理对森林碳的影响是复杂的，通常以直接成本（例如，规定火产生的碳排放）和野火或有收益（活树碳对野火的抵抗力增强）为特征。在这个研究中，我们使用了对风险敏感的碳核算和来自重复田间试验的经验数据，以评估在历史上频繁发生火灾的森林中，四种管理制度在14年内的标准规模碳效应。与未处理的对照相比，所有三种主动处理方案均立即增加了稳定的活树碳储量。在大多数情况下，尽管我们承认我们的野火模型可能低估了碳损失，但考虑到野火风险以及活生物量，死生物量和场外林产品的碳稳定性时，仅采用机械或不进行处理的控制措施将使预期的总碳储量最大化。特别是在控制台上。毫无疑问，除碳之外，许多其他生态系统和社会价值将是影响燃料和恢复处理的重要因素。