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Title: Forest aging, disturbance and the carbon cycle
Large areas of forestland in temperate North America, as well as in other parts of the world, are growing older and will soon transition into mid-successional stages and exceed 100 years in age. These ecosystems have been important regional carbon sinks as they recovered from prior anthropogenic and natural disturbance but their future capacity to store carbon is in question. Ecosystem development theory predicts a steady decline in carbon storage as forests age, but newly available, direct measurements of forest net CO2 exchange challenge that prediction. In temperate deciduous forests, where moderate severity disturbance regimes now often prevail, there is little evidence for any marked decline in carbon storage during mid-succession. Rather, an increase in physical and biological complexity under these disturbance regimes may drive increases in resource-use efficiency and resource availability that help maintain significant carbon storage in these forests well past the century mark. Conservation of aging and old-growth deciduous forests may therefore sustain the terrestrial carbon sink while providing other goods and services provided by these biologically and structurally complex ecosystems.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1655095
PAR ID:
10059460
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
New Phytologist
ISSN:
0028-646X
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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