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Total C and N Pools and Fluxes Vary with Time, Soil Temperature, and Moisture Along an Elevation, Precipitation, and Vegetation Gradient in Southern Appalachian Forests

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Abstract

The interactions of terrestrial C pools and fluxes with spatial and temporal variation in climate are not well understood. We conducted this study in the southern Appalachian Mountains where complex topography provides variability in temperature, precipitation, and forest communities. In 1990, we established five large plots across an elevation gradient allowing us to study the regulation of C and N pools and cycling by temperature and water, in reference watersheds in Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, a USDA Forest Service Experimental Forest, in western NC, USA. Communities included mixed-oak pine, mixed-oak, cove hardwood, and northern hardwood. We examined 20-year changes in overstory productivity and biomass, leaf litterfall C and N fluxes, and total C and N pools in organic and surface mineral soil horizons, and coarse wood, and relationships with growing season soil temperature and precipitation. Productivity increased over time and with precipitation. Litterfall C and N flux increased over time and with increasing temperature and precipitation, respectively. Organic horizon C and N did not change over time and were not correlated to litterfall inputs. Mineral soil C and N did not change over time, and the negative effect of temperature on soil pools was evident across the gradient. Our data show that increasing temperature and variability in precipitation will result in altered aboveground productivity. Variation in surface soil C and N is related to topographic variation in temperature which is confounded with vegetation community. Data suggest that climatic changes will result in altered aboveground and soil C and N sequestration and fluxes.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the investigators of Coweeta LTER 3 (1990–1996) for contributions to the design of the original gradient study, the technicians and graduate students who have made measurements on these plots periodically throughout the last 20+ years, and Coweeta Analytical Lab managers, Dr. Barbara (Kitti) Reynolds, James Deal and Cindi Brown who have insured high quality control of all analyses. We also thank Drs. Rich Bowden and Luke Nave for helpful comments on the manuscript. This work was funded by NSF Grants DEB0218001 and DEB0823293 to the Coweeta LTER program at the University of Georgia and by USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory project funds. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USDA Forest Service.

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  1. Craig R. See

    Present address: Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Center for Forest Watershed Science, Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, 3160 Coweeta Lab Rd, Otto, North Carolina, 28763, USA

    Jennifer D. Knoepp & Chelcy F. Miniat

  2. Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, 30602, USA

    Craig R. See

  3. USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Center for Integrated Forest Science, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 8008, Raleigh, North Carolina, 28695, USA

    James M. Vose

  4. Department of Statistical Science, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, 27706, USA

    James S. Clark

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JK and JC helped design the experiment; JK, JC, and JV collected data; JK, CS, and CM analyzed data; JK wrote the first draft of the manuscript; CS, CM, JV, JC wrote, reviewed, and edited the manuscript.

All data collected in association with this manuscript will be posted at: http://coweeta.uga.edu/dbpublic/data_catalog.asp.

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Knoepp, J.D., See, C.R., Vose, J.M. et al. Total C and N Pools and Fluxes Vary with Time, Soil Temperature, and Moisture Along an Elevation, Precipitation, and Vegetation Gradient in Southern Appalachian Forests. Ecosystems 21, 1623–1638 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-018-0244-2

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