Browsing by Subject "carbon storage"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Dynamics and Comarisons of Plant Diversity and Aboveground Carbon Storage Between Old-Growth and Second-Growth Maple-Basswood Forests in Southern Minnesota
    (2023) Partington, Nicholas
    This study investigates understory plant diversity and aboveground carbon storage in the Big Woods of southern Minnesota. Like forests worldwide, the Big Woods is losing habitat and undergoing changing disturbance regimes. These factors can negatively affect ecosystem services and fundamentally change ecosystems with time. To better understand current dynamics, we compared biodiversity and carbon storage between old-growth and second-growth forests common to the Big Woods. We surveyed plant communities and used tree diameter measurements to estimate aboveground carbon storage at several sites throughout southern Minnesota. Ordination and multivariate analysis techniques were used to compare plant communities and linear regression models analyzed effects on estimated carbon storage. Key findings show greater species richness in second-growth sites, but no significant difference in plant community structure or carbon storage between successional stages. This work highlights the change – or lack of change – in biodiversity and carbon storage that can be expected as forests age, which can be valuable to professionals managing and protecting lands with long-term goals in mind. Additionally, these results underscore the importance of considering how old-growth forests are defined, an issue that has gained substantial attention recently. Future research might study these ecosystem services along a broader range of stand ages to uncover when in succession, if at all, substantial differences in forest biodiversity and carbon storage arise.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Fire suppression and ecosystem carbon storage
    (Ecological Society of America, 2000) Tilman, David; Reich, Peter B; Phillips, Hope; Menton, Mary; Patel, Ami; Vos, Erin; Peterson, David; Knops, J;
    A 35-year controlled burning experiment in Minnesota oak savanna showed that fire frequency had a great impact on ecosystem carbon (C) stores. Specifically, compared to the historical fire regime, fire suppression led to an average of 1.8 Mg·ha−1·yr−1 of C storage, with most carbon stored in woody biomass. Forest floor carbon stores were also significantly impacted by fire frequency, but there were no detectable effects of fire suppression on carbon in soil and fine roots combined, or in woody debris. Total ecosystem C stores averaged ∼110 Mg/ha in stands experiencing presettlement fire frequencies, but ∼220 Mg/ha in stands experiencing fire suppression. If comparable rates of C storage were to occur in other ecosystems in response to the current extent of fire suppression in the United States, fire suppression in the USA might account for 8–20% of missing global carbon.