Spatial variation of surface soil carbon in a boreal forest – the role of historical fires, contemporary vegetation, and hydro-topography

Autor: Vilde L. Haukenes, Lisa Åsgård, Johan Asplund, Line Nybakken, Jørund Rolstad, Ken Olaf Storaunet, Mikael Ohlson
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research. 37:287-294
ISSN: 1651-1891
0282-7581
DOI: 10.1080/02827581.2022.2104364
Popis: Knowledge about the spatial variation of boreal forest soil carbon (C) stocks is limited, but crucial for establishing management practices that prevent losses of soil C. Here, we quantified the surface soil C stocks across small spatial scales, and aim to contribute to an improved understanding of the drivers involved in boreal forest soil C accumulation. Our study is based on C analyses of 192 soil cores, positioned and recorded systematically within a forest area of 11 ha. The study area is a south-central Norwegian boreal forest landscape, where the fire history for the past 650 years has been reconstructed. Soil C stocks ranged from 1.3 to 96.7 kg m−2 and were related to fire frequency, ecosystem productivity, vegetation attributes, and hydro-topography. Soil C stocks increased with soil nitrogen concentration, soil water content, Sphagnum- and litter-dominated forest floor vegetation, and proportion of silt in the mineral soil, and decreased with fire frequency in site 1, feathermoss- and lichen-dominated forest floor vegetation and increasing slope. Our results emphasize that boreal forest surface soil C stocks are highly variable in size across fine spatial scales, shaped by an interplay between historical forest fires, ecosystem productivity, forest floor vegetation, and hydro-topography.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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