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Harvard Forest Symposium Abstract 2012
- Title: Temporal response of soil respiration following disturbance reveals strong resilience and complete recovery within a three-year period in a temperate forest
- Primary Author: Jennifer Levy-Varon (Columbia University in the City of New York)
- Additional Authors: Kevin Griffin (Columbia University in the City of New York); William Schuster (Black Rock Forest Consortium)
- Abstract:
The goals of this study were to examine the temporal response of soil respiration after a partial stand disturbance and to reassess the autotrophic contribution to soil respiration at Black Rock Forest (southeastern NY, USA). Tree girdling was used to initiate disturbance. Treatments included: control (C), girdling all non-oaks on a plot (NO), girdling half of the oak trees on a plot (O50), girdling all the oaks on the plot (OG), and girdling all trees on a plot (ALL). Soil respiration was measured for three consecutive years. Respiratory rates on O50, OG, and ALL declined for two years following girdling before attaining a full recovery of belowground activity in the third year. Soil respiration on NO was similar to C for the duration of the study. The short lived respiratory response on O50, OG, and ALL aligns with patterns of reported NEP recovery after a pest or pathogen attack and suggests that belowground activity is resilient to disturbance. The respiratory response was not proportional to the degree of canopy loss and varied interannually. Based on the results from the first year after girding, we estimated the autotrophic component to be 50 % but continued declines in soil respiration rate into the second year provided an opportunity to make a more accurate estimate of 58 %.
- Research Category: Forest-Atmosphere Exchange
Invasive Plants, Pests & Pathogens
Large Experiments and Permanent Plot Studies
Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
