Coarse woody debris and the carbon balance of a north temperate forest

Gough, Christopher M.; Vogel, Christoph S.; Kazanski, Clare E.; Nagel, Laura; Flower, Charles E.; Curtis, Peter S.

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2007.03.039

Cited by 129 publications

(142 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…In addition to these, very different values are presented in the literature for the carbon stock of FWD [14,43]. Similar to the results in our study, Gough et al [44] provided a carbon stock value of total woody debris of 2.2 Mg·C·ha −1 in temperate forest, emphasizing that this value is an important carbon stock and close to the living leaf biomass carbon stock (1.8 Mg·C·ha −1 ). However, in our study, carbon stocks in leaf biomass were calculated as 1.54-3.67 Mg·C·ha −1 , which is higher than FWD carbon stocks.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Carbon Stocks of Fine Woody Debris in Coppice Oak Forests at Different Development Stages

Makineci¹,

Akburak²,

Özturna³

et al. 2017

Forests

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Dead woody debris is a significant component of the carbon cycle in forest ecosystems. This study was conducted in coppice-originated oak forests to determine carbon stocks of dead woody debris in addition to carbon stocks of different ecosystem compartments from the same area and forests which were formerly elucidated. Weight and carbon stocks of woody debris were determined with recent samplings and compared among development stages (diameter at breast height (DBH, D 1.3m )), namely small-diameter forests (SDF) = 0-8 cm, medium diameter forests (MDF) = 8-20 cm, and large-diameter forests (LDF) = 20-36 cm). Total woody debris was collected in samplings; as bilateral diameters of all woody debris parts were less than 10 cm, all woody parts were in the "fine woody debris (FWD)" class. The carbon concentrations of FWD were about 48% for all stages. Mass (0.78-4.92 Mg·ha −1 ) and carbon stocks (0.38-2.39 Mg·ha −1 ) of FWD were significantly (p > 0.05) different among development stages. FWD carbon stocks were observed to have significant correlation with D 1.3m , age, basal area, and carbon stocks of aboveground biomass (Spearman rank correlation coefficients; 0. 757, 0.735, 0.709, and 0.694, respectively). The most important effects on carbon budgets of fine woody debris were determined to be coppice management and intensive utilization. Also, national forestry management, treatments of traditional former coppice, and conversion to high forest were emphasized as having substantial effects.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Carbon Stocks of Fine Woody Debris in Coppice Oak Forests at Different Development Stages

Makineci¹,

Akburak²,

Özturna³

et al. 2017

Forests

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“…The models were spun up, i.e., brought to a steady state with a mature forest, and then the entire site was clear-cut, with all trees removed, i.e., harvested and the biomass taken away. This approximates the known stand-replacing disturbances of the early 20th century (Gough et al, 2007) in the UMBS forest. The models then allowed the forest to recover over 90 years before imposing 13-14 % harvests of basal area (ED and ZELIG) and biomass (Biome-BGC) in 2008, 2009, and 2010.…”

Section: Modeling Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 52%

“…NEP in the unmanipulated footprint of the UMBS control tower (US-UMBS) was 0.80-1.98 Mg C ha −1 yr −1 from 1999 to 2006, averaging 1.58 Mg C ha −1 yr −1 with substantial landscape variation (Gough et al, 2009). The forest was heavily logged in the late 1800s and early 1900s and disturbed by fire until 1923; its present-day plant composition is typical of many forests in the upper Great Lakes region (Gough et al, 2007).…”

Section: Site Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moderate forest disturbance as a stringent test for gap and big-leaf models

et al. 2015

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Abstract. Disturbance-induced tree mortality is a key factor regulating the carbon balance of a forest, but tree mortality and its subsequent effects are poorly represented processes in terrestrial ecosystem models. It is thus unclear whether models can robustly simulate moderate (non-catastrophic) disturbances, which tend to increase biological and structural complexity and are increasingly common in aging US forests. We tested whether three forest ecosystem models -Biome-BGC (BioGeochemical Cycles), a classic big-leaf model, and the ZELIG and ED (Ecosystem Demography) gap-oriented models -could reproduce the resilience to moderate disturbance observed in an experimentally manipulated forest (the Forest Accelerated Succession Experiment in northern Michigan, USA, in which 38 % of canopy dominants were stem girdled and compared to control plots). Each model was parameterized, spun up, and disturbed following similar protocols and run for 5 years post-disturbance. The models replicated observed declines in aboveground biomass well. Biome-BGC captured the timing and rebound of observed leaf area index (LAI), while ZELIG and ED correctly estimated the magnitude of LAI decline. None of the models fully captured the observed post-disturbance C fluxes, in particular gross primary production or net primary production (NPP). Biome-BGC NPP was correctly resilient but for the wrong reasons, and could not match the absolute observational values. ZELIG and ED, in contrast, exhibited large, unobserved drops in NPP and net ecosystem production. The biological mechanisms proposed to explain the observed rapid resilience of the C cycle are typically not incorporated by these or other models. It is thus an open question whether most ecosystem models will simulate correctly the gradual and less extensive tree mortality characteristic of moderate disturbances.

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“…Furthermore, thinning reduces C storage by lowering standing wood volume, as well as the amount of live wood transferred to detrital pools and eventually the soil, and may increase rates of heterotrophic respiration (Gough et al 2007, Harmon et al 2009, Stoffel et al 2010, Forrester et al 2012). This C stored as down wood can also provide a substrate for the establishment of plants, and increases resource and environmental heterogeneity in the understory (Harmon et al 1994, Harmon and Sexton 1995, Campbell and Gower 2000, Spears et al 2003, Devine and Harrington 2007, Kluber et al 2009, Weaver et al 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Management trade‐off between aboveground carbon storage and understory plant species richness in temperate forests

Burton

Ares

Olson

et al. 2013

Ecological Applications

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Abstract. Because forest ecosystems have the capacity to store large quantities of carbon (C), there is interest in managing forests to mitigate elevated CO 2 concentrations and associated effects on the global climate. However, some mitigation techniques may contrast with management strategies for other goals, such as maintaining and restoring biodiversity. Forest thinning reduces C storage in the overstory and recruitment of detrital C. These C stores can affect environmental conditions and resource availability in the understory, driving patterns in the distribution of early and late-seral species. We examined the effects of replicated (N ¼ 7) thinning experiments on aboveground C and understory vascular plant species richness, and we contrasted relationships between aboveground C and early-vs. lateseral species richness. Finally, we used structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine relationships among early-and late-seral species richness and live and detrital aboveground C stores.Six years following thinning, aboveground C was greater in the high-density treatment and untreated control than in moderate-(MD) and variable-density (VD) treatments as a result of reductions in live overstory C. In contrast, all thinning treatments increased species richness relative to controls. Between the growing seasons of years 6 and 11 following treatments, the live overstory C increment tended to increase with residual density, while richness decreased in MD and VD treatments. The richness of early-seral species was negatively related to aboveground C in MD and VD, while late-seral species richness was positively (albeit weakly) related to aboveground C. Structural equation modeling analysis revealed strong negative effects of live overstory C on early-seral species richness balanced against weaker positive effects on late-seral species richness, as well as positive effects of detrital C stocks. A trade-off between carbon and plant species richness thus emerges as a net result of these relationships among species traits, thinning treatments, and live and detrital C storage. Integrating C storage with traditional conservation objectives may require managing this trade-off within stands and landscapes (e.g., maintain early-seral habitat and species within dense, C-rich forests and, conversely, live and detrital C stores in early-seral habitats) or separating these goals across scales and species groupings.

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Coarse woody debris and the carbon balance of a north temperate forest

Cited by 129 publications

References 40 publications

Carbon Stocks of Fine Woody Debris in Coppice Oak Forests at Different Development Stages

Carbon Stocks of Fine Woody Debris in Coppice Oak Forests at Different Development Stages

Moderate forest disturbance as a stringent test for gap and big-leaf models

Management trade‐off between aboveground carbon storage and understory plant species richness in temperate forests

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