Downed woody debris (DWD) is a carbon-rich form of forest litter and plays a unique role in carbon and nutrient cycling. I present a novel modeling approach describing DWD decomposition and nutrient storage in a managed northern hardwood forest. The predicted half-life of DWD carbon was 7 years, less than previously observed in similar northern hardwood forests. A stage-based nutrient model indicated that harvest slash DWD was a net nitrogen and phosphorus sink for eight years following harvest and accumulated calcium during decay. Field observations of respiration and leaching supported model results with a respired C half-life of 8 years, while leached carbon export constituted 1.37% of the respired flux. DWD leachate carbon and nitrogen concentrations were 11× and 2× greater than from litter, respectively, and DWD leachate contributed disproportionately to soil C stocks. This work represents an expedient means of forecasting DWD abundance and partitioning carbon flux from DWD.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/43319 |
| Date | 10 December 2013 |
| Creators | Rudz, Philip |
| Contributors | Caspersen, John |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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