Flows of nitrogen and phosphorus in Finland—the forest industry and use of wood fuels

In this paper, we present the flows of nitrogen and phosphorus in the Finnish forest industry and wood fuel consumption in 1995–1999. The input of nitrogen in wood to the industry was 27 300 tonnes per year and the input of phosphorus 3180 tonnes per year, on average. Despite the small amount of bark compared to wood material, the nutrient richness of the bark makes it an important factor for the flows. Furthermore, the chemicals used in the forest industrial processes play an important role: total input of N in various chemicals was approximately 19 100 tonnes and that of P 4500 tonnes, respectively. Although the Finnish forest industry has several features typical for industrial ecosystems, it can be argued that it constitutes an open cycle of nitrogen and phosphorus.