Historical and compositional data for French forest dynamic and carbon assessment

This dataset aims at informing historical forest dynamic in France and providing data for a broad quantification of forest carbon stocks and sink over time. It includes : (i) a time series of total forest area established from historical forest statistics and National Forest Inventory data for 1850-2010, including a variant where historical data have been corrected by a +1 million hectares before 1950, (ii) a time series of total growing stock stem volume (at 7 cm final diameter) established from National Forest Inventory data for 1976-2010, (iii) indicators permitting to convert the growing stock into carbon mass, and provided at the resolution of the botanical class (broadleaved and conifer tree species), including (a) the fraction 2010 of broadleaf-to-conifer tree volume, (b) volume expansion factors (two references), (c) mean basic wood density for the botanical classes, weighted by their abundance in the forest area, (iv) a time series of historical total carbon emissions for France. All data stem from published scientific contributions whose references are provided.