Year: 2008
Type: article
Abstract: Soil CO 2 efflux (soil respiration) is the largest flux of carbon from terrestrial forest ecosystems.Understanding this flux in relation to forest thinning and prescribed burning is necessary for determining the effects of forest management on forest carbon dynamics.Since rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide are of global concern, my dissertation focused on providing insight into various aspects of soil respiration as it relates to forest management.Specifically, my research focused on (1) the effects of topographic position, canopy cover, and small-scale treatment on soil respiration (R s ) and soil microclimate; (2) modeling R s with soil microclimate data and climate data; (3) the effects of large-scale forest thinning and prescribed fire on R s and soil microclimate; and(4) the relationship between forest management and forest carbon budgets.In studies of topographic position, canopy cover, and small-scale treatments, I discovered that landscape position affected R s , with greater R s on upper slopes than lower slopes.Low-intensity prescribed fire affected R s , whereas high-intensity prescribed fire did not.Modeling of R s supported the use of soil temperature for predicting R s , with linear regression of ln (R s ) providing the best fit, as opposed to widely used Arrheniustype nonlinear models.Additionally, I predicted R s using air temperature and relative humidity data from the local weather station (R 2 = 0.94).Studies of large-scale thinning and burning resulted in reduced R s up to 3 growing seasons after forest harvesting,
Author: Dawn R. McCarthy
Institution: Ohio University
Language: English
Subfield: Soil Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDGs: Life on land, Climate action
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W375473650