Loss and recovery of ecosystem carbon pools following stand-replacing wildfire in Michigan jack pine forests

2004 ◽  
Vol 34 (9) ◽  
pp. 1908-1918 ◽  
Author(s):  
David E Rothstein ◽  
Zhanna Yermakov ◽  
Allison L Buell
Keyword(s):  
Gamma Function ◽  
Dead Wood ◽  
Plant Biomass ◽  
Carbon Sink ◽  
Mineral Soil ◽  
Jack Pine ◽  
Net Ecosystem Productivity ◽  
Ecosystem Productivity ◽  
C Stocks ◽  
Pine Stands

We used a 72-year chronosequence to study the loss and recovery of ecosystem C pools following stand-replacing wildfire in Michigan, USA, jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) forests. We quantified the amount of C stored in aboveground plant biomass, standing dead timber, downed dead wood, surface organic soil, and mineral soil in 11 jack pine stands that had burned between 1 and 72 years previously. Total ecosystem C ranged from a low of 59 Mg C·ha–1 in the 4-year-old stand to 110 Mg C·ha–1 in the 72-year-old stand. Changes in total ecosystem C across the chronosequence conformed to theoretical predictions, in which C stocks declined initially as decomposition of dead wood and forest-floor C exceeded production by regenerating vegetation, and then increased asymptotically with the development of a new stand of jack pine. This pattern was well described by the following "gamma" function: total ecosystem C (Mg·ha–1) = 112.2 – 39.6 × age0.351 × exp(–0.053 × age01.039); mean-corrected R2 = 0.976. Using the first derivative of this parameterized gamma function, we estimated that jack pine stands function as a weak source of C to the atmosphere for only ca. 6 years following wildfire, and reach a maximum net ecosystem productivity of 1.6 Mg C·ha–1·year–1 by year 16. We attribute the rapid transition from carbon source to carbon sink in these ecosystems to two factors: (i) stand-replacing wildfires in these xeric forests leave behind little respirable substrate in surface organic horizons, and (ii) jack pine is able to rapidly reestablish following wildfires via serotinous cones. Jack pine stands remained net sinks for C across the chronosequence; however, net ecosystem productivity had declined to 0.12 C ha–1·year–1 by year 72. Carbon sequestration by mature jack pine ecosystems was driven primarily by continued growth of overstory jack pine, not by accumulation of detrital C.

Net ecosystem productivity of boreal jack pine stands regenerating from clearcutting under current and future climates

2007 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1423-1440 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. F. GRANT ◽  
A. G. BARR ◽  
T. A. BLACK ◽  
D. GAUMONT-GUAY ◽  
H. IWASHITA ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Jack Pine ◽  
Net Ecosystem Productivity ◽  
Ecosystem Productivity ◽  
Pine Stands

The relative importance of environmental factors on the interannual variability of carbon fluxes in the boreal forest

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariam El-Amine ◽  
Alexandre Roy ◽  
Pierre Legendre ◽  
Oliver Sonnentag
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽  
Carbon Sink ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
Carbon Uptake ◽  
Net Ecosystem Productivity ◽  
Ecosystem Productivity ◽  
Environmental Controls

<p>As climate change will cause a more pronounced rise of air temperature in northern high latitudes than in other parts of the world, it is expected that the strength of the boreal forest carbon sink will be altered. To better understand and quantify these changes, we studied the influence of different environmental controls (e.g., air and soil temperatures, soil water content, photosynthetically active radiation, normalized difference vegetation index) on the timing of the start and end of the boreal forest growing season and the net carbon uptake period in Canada. The influence of these factors on the growing season carbon exchanges between the atmosphere and the boreal forest were also evaluated. There is a need to improve the understanding of the role of the length of the growing season and the net carbon uptake period on the strength of the boreal forest carbon sink, as an extension of these periods might not necessarily result in a stronger carbon sink if other environmental factors are not optimal for carbon sequestration or enhance respiration.</p><p>Here, we used 31 site-years of observation over three Canadian boreal forest stands: Eastern, Northern and Southern Old Black Spruce in Québec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, respectively. Redundancy analyses were used to highlight the environmental controls that correlate the most with the annual net ecosystem productivity and the start and end of the growing season and the net carbon uptake period. Preliminary results show that the timing at which the air temperature becomes positive correlates the most strongly with the start of the net carbon uptake period (r = 0.70, p < 0.001) and the start of the growing season (r = 0.55, p < 0.01). Although the increase of the normalized difference vegetation index also correlates with the start of these periods, a thorough examination of this result shows that the latter happens well before the former. No dependency between any environmental control and the end of the net carbon uptake period was identified. Also, the annual net ecosystem productivity is highly correlated with the length of the net carbon uptake period (r = 0.54, p < 0.01). Other environmental controls such as annual precipitations, the mean annual soil temperature or the maximum yearly normalized difference vegetation index have a smaller impact on the annual net ecosystem productivity. By extending the dataset to include forest stands that represent a wider climate and permafrost variability, we will examine the generalizability of these results.</p>

Nutrient accumulation for postfire jack pine and hardwood succession patterns in New Brunswick

1977 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 562-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. MacLean ◽  
Ross W. Wein
Keyword(s):  
New Brunswick ◽  
Mineral Soil ◽  
Jack Pine ◽  
Soil Horizon ◽  
Fire Intensity ◽  
Regression Equations ◽  
Nutrient Accumulation ◽  
Accumulation Pattern ◽  
Tree Layer ◽  
Pine Stands

Distribution of N, P, K, Ca, and Mg in the tree, understory, forest floor, and mineral soil horizons was determined for two series of postfire forest stands in northeastern New Brunswick. Twelve pure jack pine stands (Pinusbanksiana Lamb.) and 11 mixed hardwood stands aged 7–57 years were examined. Regression equations relating aboveground tree nutrient content to diameter for eight tree species were calculated. The jack pine stands demonstrated variable stand density, but adjustment to normal stocking produced a sigmoid nutrient accumulation pattern in the tree layer during the 60-year period. Nutrient accumulation in the tree layer of both series of stands closely approximated biomass accumulation. Understory nutrients formed a significant fraction of the total aboveground pool, particularly in the younger stands. Organic and mineral soil horizon nutrients were found to be highly variable for both series of stands; this was postulated to be a result of the fire origin of the stands, with varying fire intensity and postfire conditions resulting in different nutrient losses from the site.

scholarly journals The role of net ecosystem productivity and of inventories in climate change research: the need for “net ecosystem productivity with harvest”, NEPH

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
E. D. Schulze ◽  
R. Valentini ◽  
O. Bouriaud
Keyword(s):  
Energy Use ◽  
Carbon Sink ◽  
Net Ecosystem Productivity ◽  
Ecosystem Productivity ◽  
Climate Change Research ◽  
Main Requirement ◽  
Flux Measurements ◽  
Land Surfaces ◽  
Terrestrial Carbon Sink ◽  
Global Carbon

Abstract Background There is an urgent need for quantifying the terrestrial carbon sink in the context of global carbon emissions. However, neither the flux measurements, nor the national wood balances fulfil this purpose. In this discussion article we point at various shortcomings and necessary improvements of these approaches in order to achieve a true quantification of the carbon exchange of land surfaces. Results We discuss the necessity of incorporating all lateral fluxes, but mainly the export of biomass by harvest, into the flux balance and to recognize feedbacks between management and fluxes to make flux measurements compatible with inventories. At the same time, we discuss the necessity that national reports of wood use need to fully recognize the use of wood for energy use. Both approaches of establishing an ecosystem carbon balance, fluxes and inventories, have shortcomings. Conclusions Including harvest and feedbacks by management appears to be the main requirement for the flux approach. A better quantification of wood use for bioenergy seems a real need for integrating the national wood balances into the global carbon cycle.

Woody debris volumes and carbon accumulation differ across a chronosequence of boreal red pine and jack pine stands

2013 ◽  
Vol 43 (8) ◽  
pp. 768-775 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Allard ◽  
Andrew Park
Keyword(s):  
Pinus Banksiana ◽  
Dead Wood ◽  
Woody Debris ◽  
Jack Pine ◽  
Carbon Accumulation ◽  
Red Pine ◽  
Stand Age ◽  
Data Set ◽  
C Storage ◽  
Pine Stands

Boreal forests are thought to store more than 30% of the world’s terrestrial carbon (C), much of it in the form of dead wood. Harvesting, stand transformation, and climate change the storage capacity of this carbon pool and improved quantification of C storage is needed to improve the accuracy and coverage of C accounting in Canadian forests. In this study, we compared wood volumes and C storage in coarse woody debris (CWD), fine woody debris (FWD), and standing dead wood (snags) in a 94-year chronosequence of jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) and red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.) stands in the Sandilands Provincial Forest, southeastern Manitoba. In our data set of 20 jack pine and 17 red pine stands, jack pine stands supported higher volumes of CWD, snags, and sparsely distributed FWD than red pine stands. Mean CWD volume and C mass were, respectively, 18.6 m3·ha−1 and 2.6 tonnes (t)·ha−1 for jack pine and 11.3 m3·ha−1 and 1.1 t·ha−1 for red pine. Snag volumes and C mass were, respectively, 1.8 m3·ha−1 and 0.25 t·ha−1 for jack pine and 0.26 m3·ha−1 and 0.04 t·ha−1 for red pine. CWD loads in jack pine stands followed a U-shaped distribution with stand age, and snag loads in jack pine increased linearly with time. No such significant trends for CWD or snags were observed in red pine. Our results confirm that stand conversion from fire-origin jack pine to red pine plantations has the potential to significantly reduce and alter temporal patterns of dead wood accumulation across the landscape.

Tree rings from a European beech forest chronosequence are useful for detecting growth trends and carbon sequestration

2004 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 481-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Bascietto ◽  
Paolo Cherubini ◽  
Giuseppe Scarascia-Mugnozza
Keyword(s):  
Ring Width ◽  
European Beech ◽  
Beech Forest ◽  
Net Ecosystem Productivity ◽  
Ecosystem Productivity ◽  
C Storage ◽  
C Stocks ◽  
Sensitivity Curves ◽  
C Stock ◽  
Young Forests

Past carbon (C) storage trends were estimated using dendroecological methods in a beech chronosequence in central Germany. Raw-ring-width chronologies, sensitivity curves, and carbon uptake trends were developed for 70-, 110-, and 150-year-old (S70, S110, and S150), even-aged stands. Ecosystem C stock and net ecosystem productivity (NEPC) were computed as the sum of the C stock and fluxes of the soil, the aboveground compartment, and the estimated belowground compartment. The ecosystem C stock ranged from 216 t C·ha–1 in S150, to 265 t C·ha–1 in S70, to 272 in S110. NEPC values followed ecosystem C stocks, ranging from 1.7, to 2.4, to 5.1 t C·ha–1·year–1 for S150, S70, and S110, respectively. Stem C-stock uptake rate in S110 showed an increase in growth rate over the first 110 years of S150. We estimate that this increase in stem C stock was 6.2%. Given the constancy of forest management among the stands of the chronosequence, we hypothesize that the increase in C stock shown by S110 is due to indirect human-induced effects. We conclude that managed young forests can take advantage of increased resources and counteract the C losses at harvest that are seen in the old forests.

scholarly journals Allometric Equations for Estimating Biomass and Carbon Stocks in Afforested Open Woodlands with Black Spruce and Jack Pine, in the Eastern Canadian Boreal Forest

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Olivier Fradette ◽  
Charles Marty ◽  
Pascal Tremblay ◽  
Daniel Lord ◽  
Jean-François Boucher
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Black Spruce ◽  
Tree Height ◽  
Jack Pine ◽  
Carbon Stocks ◽  
Allometric Equations ◽  
C Stocks ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Canadian Boreal Forest

Allometric equations use easily measurable biometric variables to determine the aboveground and belowground biomasses of trees. Equations produced for estimating the biomass within Canadian forests at a large scale have not yet been validated for eastern Canadian boreal open woodlands (OWs), where trees experience particular environmental conditions. In this study, we harvested 167 trees from seven boreal OWs in Quebec, Canada for biomass and allometric measurements. These data show that Canadian national equations accurately predict the whole aboveground biomass for both black spruce and jack pine trees, but underestimated branches biomass, possibly owing to a particular tree morphology in OWs relative to closed-canopy stands. We therefore developed ad hoc allometric equations based on three power models including diameter at breast height (DBH) alone or in combination with tree height (H) as allometric variables. Our results show that although the inclusion of H in the model yields better fits for most tree compartments in both species, the difference is minor and does not markedly affect biomass C stocks at the stand level. Using these newly developed equations, we found that carbon stocks in afforested OWs varied markedly among sites owing to differences in tree growth and species. Nine years after afforestation, jack pine plantations had accumulated about five times more carbon than black spruce plantations (0.14 vs. 0.80 t C·ha−1), highlighting the much larger potential of jack pine for OW afforestation projects in this environment.

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