Carbon accrual rates, vegetation and nutrient dynamics in a regularly burned coppice woodland in Germany

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Global change biology. Bioenergy Vol. 9; no. 6; pp. 1140 - 1150
Main Authors: Borchard, Nils, Adolphs, Timo, Beulshausen, Friederike, Ladd, Brenton, Gießelmann, Urs C., Hegenberg, Dominik, Möseler, Bodo M., Amelung, Wulf
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Oxford John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01-06-2017
Subjects:
Beech
Biodiversity
Black carbon
Burning
Carbon
Cation exchange
Cation exchanging
charcoal
Climate change
Climate change mitigation
Coniferous forests
Coppicing
Forest ecosystems
Forest management
Forest soils
Nutrient availability
Nutrient dynamics
Nutrients
Organic carbon
Organic soils
Soil improvement
soil nutrient stock
Soil nutrients
soil organic carbon stock
Soil properties
Soil surfaces
Soil testing
Soil water
Species richness
temperate coppice forest
Terrestrial ecosystems
Vegetation
Woodlands
Germany
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Summary: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.
ISSN:1757-1693
1757-1707
DOI:10.1111/gcbb.12408