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Title: Carbon fluxes and interannual drivers in a temperate forest ecosystem assessed through comparison of top-down and bottom-up approaches

Journal Article · · Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [1]
  1. Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States)
  2. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
  3. USDA Forest Service, Durham, NH (United States). Northern Research Station
  4. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
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Despite decades of research, gaining a comprehensive understanding of carbon (C) cycling in forests remains a considerable challenge. Uncertainties stem from persistent methodological limitations and the difficulty of resolving top-down estimates of ecosystem C exchange with bottom-up measurements of individual pools and fluxes. To address this, we derived estimates and associated uncertainties of ecosystem C fluxes for a 100–125 year old mixed temperate forest stand at the Bartlett Experimental Forest, New Hampshire, USA, using three different approaches: (1) tower-based eddy covariance, (2) a biometric approach involving C flux measurements of individual ecosystem subcomponents, and (3) an inventory approach involving changes in major C stocks over time. Our analysis made use of 13 years of data, collected over the period from 2004 to 2016. Estimates of mean annual net ecosystem production (NEP) ranged from 120 to 133 g C m-2, demonstrating strong agreement among methods and suggesting that this aging forest acts as a moderate C sink. The use of multiple approaches to measure C fluxes and their uncertainties helped place constraints on difficult-to-measure processes such as aboveground contributions to ecosystem respiration and belowground allocation to mycorrhizal fungal biomass (which was estimated at 20% of net primary production). Analysis of interannual variability in C fluxes revealed a decoupling between annual wood growth and either current year or lagged NEP or GPP, suggesting that source limitation (C supply) is likely not controlling rates of wood production, at least on an interannual scale. Results also demonstrated a strong association between the maximum rate of C uptake during the growing season (Amax) and the length of the vernal window, defined as the period of time between soil thaw and the onset of photosynthesis. This suggests an important, but poorly understood, influence of winter and spring climate on mid-summer canopy physiology. Efforts to resolve the mechanisms responsible should be prioritized in light of ongoing and predicted changes in climate for the northeastern U.S. region, particularly during the winter and winter-spring transition period.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1603493
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1692065
Journal Information:
Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Vol. 256-257, Issue C; ISSN 0168-1923
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (4)

Linking drought legacy effects across scales: From leaves to tree rings to ecosystems journal May 2019
California air resources board forest carbon protocol invalidates offsets journal January 2019
Accounting for Carbon Flux to Mycorrhizal Fungi May Resolve Discrepancies in Forest Carbon Budgets journal September 2019
Divergent carbon cycle response of forest and grass‐dominated northern temperate ecosystems to record winter warming journal October 2019

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Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Eddy covariance
Biometric
Carbon fluxes
Vernal window
Mycorrhizae