Coarse woody debris (CWD) is an important component of the forest carbon cycle, acting as a carbon pool and a source of CO2 in temperate forest ecosystems. We used a soda‐lime closed‐chamber method to measure CO2 efflux from downed CWD (diameter ≥5 cm) and to examine CWD respiration (RCWD) under field conditions over 1 year in a temperate secondary pioneer forest in Takayama forest. We also investigated tree mortality (input to the CWD pool) from the data obtained from the annual tree census, which commenced in 2000. We developed an exponential function of temperature to predict RCWD in each decay class (R2 = 0.81–0.97). The sensitivity of RCWD to changing temperature, expressed as Q10, ranged from 2.12 to 2.92 and was relatively high in decay class III. Annual C flux from CWD (FCWD) was extrapolated using continuous air temperature measurements and CWD necromass pools in the three decay classes. FCWD was 3.0 (class I), 17.8 (class II), and 13.7 g C m−2 year−1 (class III) and totaled 34 g C m−2 year−1 in 2009. Annual input to CWD averaged 77 g C m−2 year−1 from 2000 to 2009. The budget of the CWD pool in the Takayama forest, including tree mortality inputs and respiratory outputs, was 0.43 Mg C ha−1 year−1 (net C sink) owing to high tree mortality in the mature pioneer forest. The potential CWD sink is important for the carbon cycle in temperate successional forests.
Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) plays an important role in C cycling in forest ecosystems. Here we measured the concentrations and fluxes of DOC in a cool‐temperate broad‐leaved deciduous forest (Takayama Forest) to quantify the contribution of DOC from different forest water flux conditions. Mean DOC concentration during the growing season increased in the sequence from bulk precipitation (2.98 ± 0.45 mg L−1), throughfall above dwarf bamboo (6.84 ± 0.45 mg L−1), throughfall below dwarf bamboo (7.08 ± 0.42 mg L−1), stemflow (15.05 ± 0.98 mg L−1), and litter leachate (21.33 ± 1.01 mg L−1). Litter leachate DOC concentration, being high in spring and autumn, which was fairly correlated with the amount of litterfall of bamboo and trees. In stemflow, the DOC concentration was high during early summer and gradually decreased, in addition, it also showed dramatic variation among different plant species. Litter leachate (72.5%) accounted for most of the DOC input to the soil during the growing season (311.5 kg C ha−1 7 months−1), while stemflow (1.6%) contributed the least. A great quantity of precipitation at the study site was associated with a subsequent high atmospheric contribution of DOC flux (8.6%), which was more than half of throughfall (16.5%). The high input of DOC to the soil and andisol soil characteristics at the Takayama Forest suggest that the DOC fluxes are vital to the soil carbon sequestration. Therefore, DOC fluxes should be taken into account when the carbon balance is assessed at forest ecosystems.
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