CARBON IN FINE AND COARSE WOODY DEBRISJessica SwindonMELNHE Shoestring Crew, SUNY-Cortland

Why Woody Debris?

• Added to Forest Inventory & Analysis in mid 1980s

• Insight into forest productivity

• Base cation loss

Objectives

• Carbon stock in coarse woody debris • Carbon flux in fine woody debris• How nutrient additions influence carbon stock and

fluxes

Methods: Coarse Woody Debris

• Defined as ≥ 30 mm• Four 21 meter transects ran

from a central post at 90°

• Measuring• Diameter at intersection, small and

large end

• Length

• Decay Class (scale 1-5) (Pyle & Brown, 1998)

• Source of debris

Methods: Fine Woody Debris

• One 2 x 2 m subplot in each treatment plot• 3 size classes• < 7.5 mm• 7.5-16 mm • 16-30 mm

• Dried at 60°C for 24 hours and weighed

Expected Results:• Fine woody debris biomass is expected to be greater in

stands that were most recently clearcut

Vadeboncouer, 2006

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 1400

1

2

3

4

5

6

site age

FWD

(<30

mm

dia

.) M

g/ha

Future Studies• Nutrient analysis to predict

nutrient stocks and fluxes of N, Ca, Mg, K• Continue to measure woody

debris biomass and volume in the future• Expand to CaSiO3 plots

References• Acker, M. 2005. Base cation concentration and content in litterfall and woody debris

across a northern hardwood forest chronosequence. Unpublished manuscript.

• Hamburg SP, RD Yanai, MA Arthur, JD Blum, and TG Siccama. 2003. Biotic control of calcium cycling in northern hardwood forests: acid rain and aging forests. Ecosystems 6(4): 399-406.

• Husch, B., Miller, C.I., Beers, T.W., 1972. Forest Mensuration. Ronald, New York, 410 pp.

• Pyle, C. Brown M.M., A rapid system of decay classification for hardwood logs of the eastern deciduous forest floor. 1998. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society. 125: p. 237-245.

• Waddell KL. 2002. Sampling coarse woody debris for multiple attributes in extensive resource inventories. Ecological Indicators 1: 139-153.

Acknowledgements

Ruth Yanai Matt VadeboncouerShoestring crew 2015Chris Costello, USFSNSF

http://weeksactlegacytrail.org/