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JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 111, D15103, doi:10.1029/2005JD006428, 2006

Interaction of ice storms and management practices on current carbon sequestration in forests with potential mitigation under future CO₂ atmosphere

Heather R. McCarthy

Nicholas School of Environmental and Earth Sciences, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA

Ram Oren

Nicholas School of Environmental and Earth Sciences, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA

Hyun-Seok Kim

Nicholas School of Environmental and Earth Sciences, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA

Kurt H. Johnsen

Southern Research Station, U.S. Forest Service, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA

Chris Maier

Southern Research Station, U.S. Forest Service, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA

Seth G. Pritchard

Department of Biology, College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, USA

Micheal A. Davis

Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, USA

Abstract

Ice storms are disturbance events with potential impacts on carbon sequestration. Common forest management practices, such as fertilization and thinning, can change wood and stand properties and thus may change vulnerability to ice storm damage. At the same time, increasing atmospheric CO₂ levels may also influence ice storm vulnerability. Here we show that a nonintensively managed pine plantation experienced a ∼250 g C m⁻² reduction in living biomass during a single storm, equivalent to ∼30% of the annual net ecosystem carbon exchange of this ecosystem. Drawing on weather and damage survey data from the entire storm cell, the amount of C transferred from the living to the dead biomass pool (26.5 ± 3.3 Tg C), 85% of which will decompose within 25 years, was equivalent to ∼10% of the estimated annual sequestration in conterminous U.S. forests. Conifer trees were more than twice as likely to be killed as leafless deciduous broadleaf trees. In the Duke Forest case study, nitrogen fertilization had no effect on storm-induced carbon transfer from the living to detrital pool while thinning increased carbon transfer threefold. Elevated CO₂ (administered with the free-air CO₂ enrichment (FACE) system) reduced the storm-induced carbon transfer to a third. Because of the lesser leaf area reduction, plots growing under elevated CO₂ also exhibited a smaller reduction in biomass production the following year. These results suggest that forests may suffer less damage during each ice storm event of similar severity in a future with higher atmospheric CO₂.

Received 27 June 2005; accepted 16 March 2006; published 8 August 2006.

Keywords: carbon storage; climate change; disturbance; elevated CO₂; Pinus taeda.

Index Terms: 0426 Biogeosciences: Biosphere/atmosphere interactions (0315); 0428 Biogeosciences: Carbon cycling (4806); 1630 Global Change: Impacts of global change (1225); 1817 Hydrology: Extreme events; 1863 Hydrology: Snow and ice (0736, 0738, 0776, 1827).

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Citation: McCarthy, H. R., R. Oren, H.-S. Kim, K. H. Johnsen, C. Maier, S. G. Pritchard, and M. A. Davis (2006), Interaction of ice storms and management practices on current carbon sequestration in forests with potential mitigation under future CO₂ atmosphere, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D15103, doi:10.1029/2005JD006428.

Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.