Carbon accrual rates, vegetation and nutrient dynamics in a regularly burned coppice woodland in Germany
Historically, large areas of forest in Europe were managed as coppice woodland to produce wood‐based fuel for the smelting industry. We hypothesized that this practice produced a legacy effect on current forest ecosystem properties. Specifically, we hypothesized that the historical form of coppicing...
| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Wiley
2017
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/94767 |
| _version_ | 1855530188691996672 |
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| author | Borchard, Nils Adolphs, T. Beulshausen, F. Ladd, Brenton Gießelmann, U.C. Hegenberg, D. Möseler, B.M. Amelung, Wulf |
| author_browse | Adolphs, T. Amelung, Wulf Beulshausen, F. Borchard, Nils Gießelmann, U.C. Hegenberg, D. Ladd, Brenton Möseler, B.M. |
| author_facet | Borchard, Nils Adolphs, T. Beulshausen, F. Ladd, Brenton Gießelmann, U.C. Hegenberg, D. Möseler, B.M. Amelung, Wulf |
| author_sort | Borchard, Nils |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Historically, large areas of forest in Europe were managed as coppice woodland to produce wood‐based fuel for the smelting industry. We hypothesized that this practice produced a legacy effect on current forest ecosystem properties. Specifically, we hypothesized that the historical form of coppicing may have produced a legacy of elevated stocks of soil organic carbon (SOC), nutrients and black carbon (BC) in soil as fire was routinely used in coppiced woodland to clear land. We further hypothesized that these changes in soil properties would result in increased biodiversity. To test these hypotheses, we sampled the surface soil (0–5, 5–10 and 10–20 cm) from a chronosequence of forest sites found in the Siegerland (Germany) that had been coppiced and burned 1, 2, 3.5, 6, 8, 11 and 17 years before present. Mature beech and spruce forests (i.e., >60 years) were also sampled as reference sites: to provide a hint of what might occur in the absence of human intervention. We measured stocks of SOC, BC, NO3‐N, P, K, Mg, as well as cation exchange and water‐holding capacity, and we mapped plant composition to calculate species richness and evenness. The results showed that coppicing in combination with burning soil and litter improved soil nutrient availability, enhanced biodiversity and increased SOC stocks. The SOC stocks and biodiversity were increased by a factor of three relative to those in the mature beech and spruce forests. This study shows that traditional coppicing practice may facilitate net C accrual rates of 20 t ha−1 yr−1 and maintain high biodiversity, indicating that aspects of traditional practice could be applied in current forest management to foster biodiversity and to mitigate climate change. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace94767 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publishDateRange | 2017 |
| publishDateSort | 2017 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| publisherStr | Wiley |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace947672025-06-17T08:23:54Z Carbon accrual rates, vegetation and nutrient dynamics in a regularly burned coppice woodland in Germany Borchard, Nils Adolphs, T. Beulshausen, F. Ladd, Brenton Gießelmann, U.C. Hegenberg, D. Möseler, B.M. Amelung, Wulf charcoal carbon soil organic carbon soil organic matter biodiversity Historically, large areas of forest in Europe were managed as coppice woodland to produce wood‐based fuel for the smelting industry. We hypothesized that this practice produced a legacy effect on current forest ecosystem properties. Specifically, we hypothesized that the historical form of coppicing may have produced a legacy of elevated stocks of soil organic carbon (SOC), nutrients and black carbon (BC) in soil as fire was routinely used in coppiced woodland to clear land. We further hypothesized that these changes in soil properties would result in increased biodiversity. To test these hypotheses, we sampled the surface soil (0–5, 5–10 and 10–20 cm) from a chronosequence of forest sites found in the Siegerland (Germany) that had been coppiced and burned 1, 2, 3.5, 6, 8, 11 and 17 years before present. Mature beech and spruce forests (i.e., >60 years) were also sampled as reference sites: to provide a hint of what might occur in the absence of human intervention. We measured stocks of SOC, BC, NO3‐N, P, K, Mg, as well as cation exchange and water‐holding capacity, and we mapped plant composition to calculate species richness and evenness. The results showed that coppicing in combination with burning soil and litter improved soil nutrient availability, enhanced biodiversity and increased SOC stocks. The SOC stocks and biodiversity were increased by a factor of three relative to those in the mature beech and spruce forests. This study shows that traditional coppicing practice may facilitate net C accrual rates of 20 t ha−1 yr−1 and maintain high biodiversity, indicating that aspects of traditional practice could be applied in current forest management to foster biodiversity and to mitigate climate change. 2017-06 2018-07-03T11:01:46Z 2018-07-03T11:01:46Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/94767 en Open Access Wiley Borchard, N., Adolphs, T., Beulshausen, F., Ladd, B., Gießelmann, U.C., Hegenberg, D., Möseler, B.M., Amelung, W.. 2017. Carbon accrual rates, vegetation and nutrient dynamics in a regularly burned coppice woodland in Germany GCB Bioenergy, 9 (6) : 1140-1150. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.12408 |
| spellingShingle | charcoal carbon soil organic carbon soil organic matter biodiversity Borchard, Nils Adolphs, T. Beulshausen, F. Ladd, Brenton Gießelmann, U.C. Hegenberg, D. Möseler, B.M. Amelung, Wulf Carbon accrual rates, vegetation and nutrient dynamics in a regularly burned coppice woodland in Germany |
| title | Carbon accrual rates, vegetation and nutrient dynamics in a regularly burned coppice woodland in Germany |
| title_full | Carbon accrual rates, vegetation and nutrient dynamics in a regularly burned coppice woodland in Germany |
| title_fullStr | Carbon accrual rates, vegetation and nutrient dynamics in a regularly burned coppice woodland in Germany |
| title_full_unstemmed | Carbon accrual rates, vegetation and nutrient dynamics in a regularly burned coppice woodland in Germany |
| title_short | Carbon accrual rates, vegetation and nutrient dynamics in a regularly burned coppice woodland in Germany |
| title_sort | carbon accrual rates vegetation and nutrient dynamics in a regularly burned coppice woodland in germany |
| topic | charcoal carbon soil organic carbon soil organic matter biodiversity |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/94767 |
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