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Abstract

In the temperate zone, the increasing need to replace fossil fuels by renewable energy resources, taking into account the general limiting conditions of climate change, has resulted in alternative land-use systems coming to the fore. Short rotation coppice (SRC) of fast-growing trees such as poplar or black locust offers an approach for the sustainable production of biomass and a prolonged fixation of carbon in the plants and the soil with positive effects on soil humus and general fertility of marginal agricultural sites. In the open-cast mining area of Lusatia in northeast Germany, reclaimed mine sites provide a large area of marginal land. To estimate the benefits for carbon sequestration in the above-ground and below-ground biomass as well as in the soil of a poplar and a black locust SRC, results of several field experiments conducted in that region were evaluated. In addition, the empirical carbon model shortcar was used to simulate the carbon cycle of SRC and to estimate the net primary production, net ecosystem and net biome production of the tree plantations. The results demonstrate that SRC can form an effective carbon sink at least for the considered time period. If the effect of replacing fossil energy fuels by regrowing biomass is taken into account, SRC can be considered to be a permanent carbon sink and may provide a promising alternative for future land use in the temperate zone.