Journal
ECOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS
Volume 90, Issue 4, Pages -Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/ecm.1423
Keywords
belowground production; carbon cycling; climate change; disturbance; ecosystem ecology; eddy covariance; forest ecosystems; gross primary production; long-term ecological research; net primary production; permanent plots
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological Research Program (NSF-DEB) [8811764, 9411975, 0080592, 0620443, 1237491]
- AmeriFlux Management Project
- U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science [DE-AC02-05CH11231]
- NSF-Ecosystem Studies [DEB0447967]
- NSF Long-Term Research in Environmental Biology [DEB1456610]
- U.S. Department of Energy-Terrestrial Ecosystems Science [DE-SC0006741]
- Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research of the U.S. Department of Energy, RGCM RuBiSCo SFA [DE-AC02-05CH11231]
- NSF [EF-1241930, 1638688]
- NASA [NNX08AG14G, NNX14AJ18G, NNX11AB88G]
- USDA-NIFA [1006997]
- NASA's Carbon Monitoring System program [NNH14ZDA001N-CMS, NNX14AR39G]
- U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) [DE-SC0006741] Funding Source: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Division Of Environmental Biology [0080592] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Division Of Environmental Biology [1237491, 0620443, 9411975, 8811764] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- NASA [NNX11AB88G, 149790, 680289, NNX14AJ18G, 674078, NNX14AR39G, 101455, NNX08AG14G] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
- NIFA [912249, 1006997] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
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How, where, and why carbon (C) moves into and out of an ecosystem through time are long-standing questions in biogeochemistry. Here, we bring together hundreds of thousands of C-cycle observations at the Harvard Forest in central Massachusetts, USA, a mid-latitude landscape dominated by 80-120-yr-old closed-canopy forests. These data answered four questions: (1) where and how much C is presently stored in dominant forest types; (2) what are current rates of C accrual and loss; (3) what biotic and abiotic factors contribute to variability in these rates; and (4) how has climate change affected the forest's C cycle? Harvard Forest is an active C sink resulting from forest regrowth following land abandonment. Soil and tree biomass comprise nearly equal portions of existing C stocks. Net primary production (NPP) averaged 680-750 g C.m(-2).yr(-1); belowground NPP contributed 38-47% of the total, but with large uncertainty. Mineral soil C measured in the same inventory plots in 1992 and 2013 was too heterogeneous to detect change in soil-C pools; however, radiocarbon data suggest a small but persistent sink of 10-30 g C.m(-2).yr(-1). Net ecosystem production (NEP) in hardwood stands averaged similar to 300 g C.m(-2).yr(-1). NEP in hemlock-dominated forests averaged similar to 450 g C.m(-2).yr(-1) until infestation by the hemlock woolly adelgid turned these stands into a net C source. Since 2000, NPP has increased by 26%. For the period 1992-2015, NEP increased 93%. The increase in mean annual temperature and growing season length alone accounted for similar to 30% of the increase in productivity. Interannual variations in GPP and NEP were also correlated with increases in red oak biomass, forest leaf area, and canopy-scale light-use efficiency. Compared to long-term global change experiments at the Harvard Forest, the C sink in regrowing biomass equaled or exceeded C cycle modifications imposed by soil warming, N saturation, and hemlock removal. Results of this synthesis and comparison to simulation models suggest that forests across the region are likely to accrue C for decades to come but may be disrupted if the frequency or severity of biotic and abiotic disturbances increases.
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