Fig. 2

Changes in forest C accumulation the forest carbon sink at a landscape level for changes in economic and management variables, representing the cumulative change in the C sink across a range of individual forest parcels in a landscape, which can be driven by markets, natural disturbance, or external economic forces including market conditions in the agricultural sector [144, 145, 147]. Trends of land degradation, increased opportunity costs of forest losses, and increased agricultural productivity have led to establishment of forests managed for timber production in some areas, increasing potential for C storage (a shift to \(C_{1}\)). Similar levels of investment could occur through C oriented policies that allocate financial resources to tree planting programs and improved forest management [9]. Alternatively, growing populations and higher demand for food products or urban development could increase incentives to clear forests for alternative land uses, diminishing the carbon sink (Shift to \(C_{2}\)). Large regional disturbances (hurricanes, sustained wildfires) could also decrease C stock accumulation over time in the absence of policy incentives to make up for diminished regional NPP