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Greenhouse gas emissions after a prescribed fire in white birch-dwarf bamboo stands in northern Japan, focusing on the role of charcoal

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Abstract

Forest fires affect both carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling in forest ecosystems, and thereby influence the soil–atmosphere exchange of major greenhouse gases (GHGs): carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). To determine changes in the soil GHG fluxes following a forest fire, we arranged a low-intensity surface fire in a white birch forest in northern Japan. We established three treatments, having four replications each: a control plot (CON), a burned plot (BURN), and a plot burned with removal of the resulting charcoal (BURN-CHA). Soil GHG fluxes and various properties of the soil were determined on four or five occasions during a period that spanned two growing seasons. We observed increased concentrations of ammonium-N (NH4-N) in BURN and BURN-CHA after the fire, while nitrate–N (NO3-N) concentration was only increased in BURN-CHA after the fire. The soil CO2 flux was significantly higher in CON than in BURN or BURN-CHA, but there was no difference in soil CH4 uptake between the three treatments. Moreover, the N2O flux from BURN-CHA soil was slightly greater than in CON or BURN. In BURN-CHA, the soil N2O flux peaked in August, but there was no peak in BURN. We found temporal correlations between soil GHG fluxes and soil variables, e.g. soil temperature or NO3-N. Our results suggest that environmental changes following fire, including the increased availability of N and the disappearance of the litter layer, have the potential to change soil GHG fluxes. Fire-produced charcoal could be significant in reducing soil N2O flux in temperate forests.

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Acknowledgments

Experimental burning was conducted with the cooperation of the technical staff and technical assistant staff of the TEF. We are grateful to Dr. M. Shibuya and Dr. H. Saito for their valuable comments on this study. We also thank Dr. A. Garrett of the Cambridge Scitext, UK for his linguistic comments. Our study was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid of JSPS to Y.S. Kim (No. 223383), that to K. Makoto (No. 192105), that to T. Koike (Type B 20380083), the JAFTA Research Foundation (12th-H20) to T. Satomura, and is a contribution to the research project of the Forest Research Station of the Field Science Center of Northern Biosphere, of Hokkaido University (TEF07).

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Author notes

  1. Kobayashi Makoto

    Present address: Climate Impact Research Centre, Umeå University, 901 87, Abisko, Sweden

  2. Takami Satomura

    Present address: Faculty of Agriculture, Kagawa University, Kida, 761-0795, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Silviculture and Forest Ecological studies, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-8589, Japan

    Yong Suk Kim, Kobayashi Makoto & Takayoshi Koike

  2. Faculty of Bio-Resources Sciences, Akita Prefectural University, Akita, 010-0195, Japan

    Fumiaki Takakai

  3. Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-0809, Japan

    Hideaki Shibata, Takami Satomura & Kentaro Takagi

  4. Soil Science Laboratory, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-8589, Japan

    Ryusuke Hatano

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  1. Yong Suk Kim
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Correspondence to Takayoshi Koike.

Additional information

Communicated by A. Merino.

Y. S. Kim and K. Makoto contributed equally to this study.

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Kim, Y.S., Makoto, K., Takakai, F. et al. Greenhouse gas emissions after a prescribed fire in white birch-dwarf bamboo stands in northern Japan, focusing on the role of charcoal. Eur J Forest Res 130, 1031–1044 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-011-0490-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-011-0490-8

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