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Harvard Forest REU Symposium Abstract 2011
- Title: Assessing the Importance of Various Biotic and Abiotic Factors in Soil Respiration Modeling
- Author: Katharine M Chute (Harvard College (Harvard University))
- Abstract:
The cycling of carbon, water, and energy between forests and the atmosphere drives global climatic patterns. Yet these large-scale processes have many contributing factors that are not fully understood. This study analyzes the effects of clear-cut logging on forest-atmosphere dynamics. These disturbances are common within managed forests and play an important role in regional-scale forest cycles. Our study site, located in Harvard Forest, in Petersham, Massachusetts, is a former Norway spruce (Picea abies) plantation that was clearcut in fall 2008 as part of a management plan to restore the forest to its native state. An eddy covariance flux tower was installed in spring 2009 to monitor the carbon, water, and energy dynamics at the site as it recovers towards a mature forest. The work completed in summer 2011 provides necessary supporting data to assist in the verification of the flux tower’s gross primary productivity (GPP) measurements. Onsite species composition, sapling/seedling density and growth were measured using sample plots and line-intercept transects, and the data was compared to measurements from summer 2010. Of 38 total species, Allegheny blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis), red maple (Acer rubrum), and pin cherry (Prunus pensylvanica) were most dominant by percent cover in both June and July of 2011. Though growth varied by species, total percent vegetation coverage increased. Between summer 2010 and summer 2011 there were minimal significant differences in the average stem density and species composition. These results are important in two ways. First, our data add to the body of research describing typical patterns of New England forest succession. Second, this work provides key site-specific data to support flux tower measurements in a recently disturbed temperate forest. Such sites have not been extensively monitored with flux tower equipment, and this study is thus an important contribution to the overall understanding of forest-atmosphere exchange dynamics
- Research Category: Forest-Atmosphere Exchange
