White Spruce Plantations on Abandoned Agricultural Land: Are They More Effective as C Sinks than Natural Succession?
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Experimental Section
2.1. Study Area
2.2. The Chronosequence Approach
2.3. Tree and Shrub Measurements
2.4. Sampling of Litter and of Vegetation Shorter than 1.3 m
2.5. Soil Sampling
2.6. Laboratory Analyses
2.7. Total C Content Estimation
2.8. Statistical Analyses
3. Results
3.1. Vegetation Composition and Density
3.2. Vegetation C Stock
Compartment | Age = 0 years | Age = 50 years | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
NS | PL | Difference | P | NS | PL | Difference | P | |||
Bulk density | 0.975 (0.031) | 0.888 (0.021) | 0.086 (0.031) | 0.005 | 0.854 (0.042) | 0.767 (0.043) | 0.086 | 0.005 | ||
C stocks | Soil (0–50 cm) | 96.6 (9.6) | 82.0 (4.7) | −14.5 (10.7) | 0.173 | 97.9 (15.6) | 53.9 (10.6) | −44.1 (18.9) | 0.020 | |
Litter | 3.7 (0.3) | 4.0 (0.3) | 0.3 (0.4) | 0.490 | 4.2 (0.5) | 7.8 (0.7) | 3.6 (0.9) | <0.001 | ||
Aboveground vegetation | 0.5 (0.3) | 0.0 (0.1) | 0.5 (0.3) | 0.067 | 67.9 (21.1) | 196.6 (42.5) | 128.7 (21.3) | <0.001 | ||
Coarse roots | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.434 | 16.3 (2.7) | 16.9 (2.7) | 0.6 (0.2) | 0.014 | ||
Total | 109.6 (11.8) | 91.8 (5.5) | −17.8 (11.8) | 0.135 | 217.9 (28.7) | 285.7 (31.0) | 67.8 (28.1) | 0.018 |
3.3. Litter C Stock
3.4. Soil C Stock
3.5. Total C Stock
4. Discussion
4.1. Vegetation
4.2. Litter
4.3. Soil
4.4. Total
5. Conclusions
- (1)
- To promote long-term climate change mitigation, PL sites should have planned rotations of more than 50 years for them to reach a net gain of C in the mineral soil, since soil C stocks of PL sites were still decreasing after 50 years.
- (2)
- Longer-term studies on spruce PL sites should be continued to determine the moment when mineral soil starts to sequestrate C, and down to which depth. Also, measuring fine root production and mortality would allow estimation of the importance of this soil C input.
- (3)
- Although NS sites sequester less C, they still represent an interesting option because of other advantages, such as a lower cost, a higher plant biodiversity, and a larger soil C sink in the 0–30 cm layer.
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Tremblay, S.; Ouimet, R. White Spruce Plantations on Abandoned Agricultural Land: Are They More Effective as C Sinks than Natural Succession? Forests 2013, 4, 1141-1157. https://doi.org/10.3390/f4041141
Tremblay S, Ouimet R. White Spruce Plantations on Abandoned Agricultural Land: Are They More Effective as C Sinks than Natural Succession? Forests. 2013; 4(4):1141-1157. https://doi.org/10.3390/f4041141
Chicago/Turabian StyleTremblay, Sylvie, and Rock Ouimet. 2013. "White Spruce Plantations on Abandoned Agricultural Land: Are They More Effective as C Sinks than Natural Succession?" Forests 4, no. 4: 1141-1157. https://doi.org/10.3390/f4041141