Changes in ecosystem carbon storage over 40 years on an old-field/forest landscape in east-central Minnesota

doi:10.1016/0378-1127(96)03704-8

Forest Ecology and Management

Volume 83, Issues 1–2, June 1996, Pages 17-26

https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-1127(96)03704-8 Get rights and content

Abstract

Organic carbon (C) storage in complex landscapes and its temporal change can be important in the global C budget. Change in C storage between 1938 and 1977 was estimated for a 2224 ha old-field/forest landscape in east-central Minnesota by coupling change in area of seven vegetation types (five forest and two non-forest) with vegetation-specific C densities (mg ha⁻¹). Carbon densities were based on sampling carried out between 1974 and 1990. Areas of vegetation types in 1938 and 1977 were determined from aerial photographs. Carbon density was greatest in forest overstory (60–100 Mg ha⁻¹) and organic and mineral soil (30–100 Mg ha⁻¹ to 25 cm depth). Ecosystem C storage was approximately 212000 Mg in 1938 and 225000 Mg in 1977, an increase of ca. 13000 Mg across the study area. This was due largely to an increase in upland forest at the expense of non-forest area. The largest proportional increase in C storage was in trees (a 13% gain), while mineral soil gained 4% and herbs gained 6%. C storage in O horizon and shrubs remained constant. For the 20% of the landscape originally occupied by cultivated fields, an empirical model based on chronosequence studies indicated a 40% increase in C storage over 40 years; C increased in mineral soil, O horizon and trees as both herbaceous succession and forest encroachment occurred. Uncertainties of the estimates, based on propagation of standard errors, were 5% to 19% for C storage and 6% to 1000% for change in C storage. Uncertainty was due primarily to sample variability, but included uncertainty in biomass equations and GIS processing. This uncertainty demonstrates the difficulties associated with expanding from point sample data to landscape-scale estimates of C storage.

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Changes in ecosystem carbon storage over 40 years on an old-field/forest landscape in east-central Minnesota

Abstract

Forest Ecol. Manage.

Forest Ecol. Manage.

Adv. Ecol. Res.

Forest Ecol. Manage.

Forest Ecol. Manage.

Impact of aspen timber harvesting on soils

Mass equations and merchantability factors for Ontario softwoods

Canadian Forestry Service, Information Report PI-X-23

Total tree and merchantable stem biomass equations for Ontario hardwoods

Canadian Forestry Service, Information Report PI-X-46

Tall shrubs in northern Minnesota

Production and depth distribution of fine roots in a boreal open bog

Ann. Bot. Fenn.

Rapid soil development after windthrow disturbance in pristine forests

J. Ecol.

Biomass and carbon storage of North American deciduous forest

Biogeochemistry

Soil solution chemistry, mineral weathering, and pedogenesis in sandy outwash soils of east-central Minesota

Primary production in some Minnesota terrestrial communities for 1957

Oikos

Regional modeling of grassland biogeochemistry using GIS

Landscape Ecol.

Fifty years of Minnesota corn production: Sources of yield increase

Agron. J.

Biomass estimation equations for wetland tall shrubs

University of Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station, Minnesota Forestry Research Notes 284

Changes in forest floor organic matter and nutrient content following clear cutting in northern hardwoods

Ecology

Late-Wisconsin pollen stratigraphy in eastcentral Minnesota

Tropical forests and the global carbon cycle

Science

Analysis of the size and shape of areas of forest ingrowth into grasslands at Cedar Creek Natural History Area from 1938 to 1977

Elementary forest sampling

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Handbook No. 232

Manual of vascular plants of Northeastern United States and adjacent Canada

Allocation and the transient dynamics of succession on poor soils

Ecology

Differences in soil and leaf litterfall nitrogen dynamics for five forest plantations

Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J.