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Nine-year changes in carbon dynamics following different intensities of harvesting in boreal aspen stands

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Abstract

Mixedwood forests occupy a large extent of boreal regions and have the potential for sequestering large amounts of carbon. In the context of forest ecosystem management, partial cutting prescriptions are increasingly being applied to boreal mixedwood stands. Partial harvesting is expected to maintain carbon pools and dynamics within the limits of those of natural stands. Changes in live tree, deadwood (standing snags, downed logs), forest floor and mineral soil carbon pools were assessed over a 9-year period in a replicated large-scale experiment, which included unharvested controls, two variants of partial harvesting and clear-cuts. We also measured leaf litter and deadwood inputs and decay rates. Carbon flux through leaf litterfall recovered rapidly following partial harvesting. Carbon flux from live trees to deadwood pools was a dominant process in partially harvested stands where snags and downed log carbon pools remained similar to those of natural stands. Hence, the nature of litter inputs diverged strongly among clear-cut and partially harvested treatments. Leaf and wood decay rates were higher in the partial cuts and controls than in clear-cuts. No significant differences in forest floor and mineral soil carbon were observed 9 years after harvesting. Carbon sequestration in live tree biomass was the carbon pool that most strongly differentiated the treatments allowing partial harvesting to maintain forest stands as net carbon sinks.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the two reviewers who provided helpful comments and suggestions to improve the original manuscript. We are also grateful to Dr. Marc Mazerolle for statistical support, Josée Frenette, Ariane Béchard, Mylène Bélanger, Alfred Coulomb, Mario Major and Dr. Hedi Kebli for field assistance, and Dr. William F.J. Parsons for English revision. This study was supported by the Fonds Québécois de Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies (FQRNT, Grant 121414), by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC, Grant 217118-02) by the Lake Duparquet Research and Teaching Forest (Ph.D. scholarship) and by Jean-Jacques Cossette (Ph.D. Scholarship).

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  1. Centre d’Étude de la Forêt, and Chaire Industrielle NSERC-UQAT-UQAM en Aménagement Forestier Durable, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, 445 boulevard de l’Université, Rouyn-Noranda, QC, J9X 5E4, Canada

    Manuella Strukelj & Suzanne Brais

  2. Centre de foresterie des Laurentides, Service canadien des forêts, Ressources naturelles Canada, 1055 rue du P.E.P.S., C.P. 10380, Sainte-Foy, Quebec, QC, G1V 4C7, Canada

    David Paré

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  1. Manuella Strukelj
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  2. Suzanne Brais
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Correspondence to Manuella Strukelj.

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Communicated by Lluís Coll.

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Strukelj, M., Brais, S. & Paré, D. Nine-year changes in carbon dynamics following different intensities of harvesting in boreal aspen stands. Eur J Forest Res 134, 737–754 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-015-0880-4

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