Aspen Bibliography

Interactions Among Wildlife, Forest Type and Landscape Position are Key Determinants of Boreal Forest Carbon Stocks

Document Type

Article

Author ORCID Identifier

Sean M. P. Cahoon https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3178-7910

Patrick F. Sullivan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8015-3036

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Journal of Ecology

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

First Page

1

Last Page

18

Publication Date

7-6-2022

Abstract

  1. Boreal forest soils contain large stocks of soil carbon (C) that may be sensitive to changes in climate and disturbance. Destablization of boreal forest soil C through changes in C inputs, belowground C pools and/or wildfire could feedback to accelerate rising atmospheric CO2 concentration. Additionally, increasing frequency of severe fires may be changing the dominant forest types and reshaping aboveground C stocks.
  2. Although controls on ecosystem C pools have received considerable attention, many studies have been limited to locations near the road system, leading to uncertainty in current and future C stocks across boreal Alaska. Here, we leveraged 545 randomly selected and spatially balanced Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plots across ~13.5 million hectares in interior Alaska to examine the factors governing soil and live tree C pools.
  3. Forest type mediated the effects of mean summer air temperature and the probability of near-surface permafrost on soil C. Meanwhile, forest type, stand age and aspect were the primary drivers of live tree C. Overall, plots with a known history of wildfire during the past 70 years did not have significantly different soil C stocks than plots without a known history of fire, likely due to the historical predominance of low severity fires.
  4. Where wildfire likely initiated a transition to deciduous trees (19% of plots), live tree and soil C pools were reduced by 16% and 20%, respectively. Ecosystem C likely recovered over time, as maturing deciduous stands rapidly gained C in live trees. Deciduous stands without a known fire had comparatively very large live tree C stocks, suggesting a significant change in the distribution of ecosystem C following severe fire.
  5. Synthesis. Our results highlight the nuanced interactions among wildfire, landscape position and forest type that will play important roles in shaping future boreal ecosystem C stocks.

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