Forests in Europe serve as an important carbon sink, mitigating currently 10% of European induced CO₂ emissions (Fig. 2). Their future contribution as carbon sink depends on forest management, climate change and change in air quality (in particular nitrogen deposition and ozone).
Elevated CO₂ concentrations and nitrogen deposition increase forest growth and carbon sequestration, whereas elevated ozone concentrations reduce growth. Estimates for nitrogen vary from 10-200 kg additional carbon sequestration per kg nitrogen. Focused monitoring and related research is thus needed to reduce uncertainty in impact estimation. [...]