Partitioning of forest floor CO2 emissions reveals the belowground interactions between different plant groups in a Scots pine stand in southern Finland

To evaluate the applicability of the hourly Fine Fuel Moisture Code (FFMC) to the south-eastern Great Xing’an Mountains, dead fine fuel moisture (Mf) was observed under less-sheltered and sheltered conditions in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica), larch (Larix gmelinii) and oak (Quercus mongolicus) stands during the summer and autumn of 2014. Standard FFMC and locally calibrated FFMC values calculated hourly were tested using Mf observations and weather data, and the results showed that the Mf loss rate in the less-sheltered forest floor was markedly higher than that in the sheltered forest floor (P < 0.05). The standard hourly FFMC underestimated Mf, especially in stands of larch, the dominant species in the Great Xing’an Mountains, and Mf for rainy days in Scots pine and oak stands. However, the calibrated hourly FFMC predicted Mf in all three forest stands very well (R2 ranged from 0.920 to 0.969; mean absolute errorfrom 2.93 to 6.93, and root-mean-squared errorfrom 4.09 to 7.87), which suggested that it was sufficiently robust for those stands around the observation period. This study will improve the accuracy of Mf predictions to aid fire control efforts in the Great Xing’an Mountains and provide a basis for hourly FFMC model calibration.

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Corrigendum to “Inter- and intra-annual dynamics of photosynthesis differ between forest floor vegetation and tree canopy in a subarctic Scots pine stand”: Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Volume 271, 15 June 2019, Pages 1-11

Agricultural and Forest Meteorology ◽

10.1016/j.agrformet.2020.108284 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 108284

Author(s):

Liisa Kulmala ◽

Jukka Pumpanen ◽

Pasi Kolari ◽

Sigrid Dengel ◽

Frank Berninger ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Scots Pine ◽

Forest Floor ◽

Tree Canopy ◽

Forest Meteorology ◽

Forest Floor Vegetation

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Contribution of woody elements to tree level reflectance in boreal forests

Silva Fennica ◽

10.14214/sf.10600 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 55 (5) ◽

Author(s):

Nea Kuusinen ◽

Aarne Hovi ◽

Miina Rautiainen

Keyword(s):

Norway Spruce ◽

Scots Pine ◽

Forest Floor ◽

Laser Scanning ◽

Remote Sensing Data ◽

Hyperspectral Data ◽

Tree Level ◽

Area Index ◽

Reflectance Model ◽

Physically Based

Spectral mixture analysis was used to estimate the contribution of woody elements to tree level reflectance from airborne hyperspectral data in boreal forest stands in Finland. Knowledge of the contribution of woody elements to tree or forest reflectance is important in the context of lea area index (LAI) estimation and, e.g., in the estimation of defoliation due to insect outbreaks, from remote sensing data. Field measurements from four Scots pine ( L.), five Norway spruce ( (L.) Karst.) and four birch ( Roth and Ehrh.) dominated plots, spectral measurements of needles, leaves, bark, and forest floor, airborne hyperspectral as well as airborne laser scanning data were used together with a physically-based forest reflectance model. We compared the results based on simple linear combinations of measured bark and needle/leaf spectra to those obtained by accounting for multiple scattering of radiation within the canopy using a physically-based forest reflectance model. The contribution of forest floor to reflectance was additionally considered. The resulted mean woody element contribution estimates varied from 0.140 to 0.186 for Scots pine, from 0.116 to 0.196 for birches and from 0.090 to 0.095 for Norway spruce, depending on the model used. The contribution of woody elements to tree reflectance had a weak connection to plot level forest variables.Pinus sylvestrisPicea abiesBetula pendulaBetula pubescens

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Soil and forest floor characteristics of Scots pine stands on drift sands

Silva Gandavensis ◽

10.21825/sg.v57i0.883 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 57 ◽

Author(s):

D. Maddelein ◽

N. Lust

Keyword(s):

Scots Pine ◽

Tree Growth ◽

Forest Floor ◽

Soil Analysis ◽

Mineral Soil ◽

Soil Nutrient ◽

Nutrient Content ◽

Poor Quality ◽

Tree Litter ◽

Nutrient Amounts

In Flanders, important drift sand areas were afforestated with Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) during the last century. Drought stress and limited nutrient availability are two major factors limiting tree growth on these sites. Nevertheless, afforestation succeeded extremely well and tree growth can be considered as satisfactory. Chemical soil analysis stresses the very poor quality of the mineral soil. Nutrient content of the mineral soil is even poorer than that of neighbouring heathland soils. The formation of a well developed forest floor is the most important feature of soil evolution during the last century. A seventy year old stand has built up a thick forest floor, with a biomass of over 10 kg/m2. This layer functions as a main nutrient source in the ecosystem. Annually, 4000 to 5000 kg of tree litter per hectare return to the forest soil. Sixty percent of this fraction consists of shed needles. Needles also have a dominant share in the nutrient amounts returned with tree litter. Annually, about 42 kg of N, 8 kg of K, 15 kg of Ca and 2 kg of P and Mg are returned to the soil with tree litter. These values are, with exception of N, very low compared to other forest ecosystems. The herbaceous layer, poor in species and dominated by wavy-hair grass (Deschampsia flexuosa (L.) Trin.), also produces over 2500 kg of litter per year and per hectare, and plays an equally important role in the nutrient supply of the growing vegetation. Key words: Scots pine, drift sand, forest floor, litter

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Inter- and intra-annual dynamics of photosynthesis differ between forest floor vegetation and tree canopy in a subarctic Scots pine stand

Agricultural and Forest Meteorology ◽

10.1016/j.agrformet.2019.02.029 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 271 ◽

pp. 1-11 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Liisa Kulmala ◽

Jukka Pumpanen ◽

Pasi Kolari ◽

Sigrid Dengel ◽

Frank Berninger ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Scots Pine ◽

Forest Floor ◽

Tree Canopy ◽

Forest Floor Vegetation

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Carbon Pools in Old-Growth Scots Pine Stands in Hemiboreal Latvia

Forests ◽

10.3390/f10100911 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. 911 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Laura Ķēniņa ◽

Ieva Jaunslaviete ◽

Līga Liepa ◽

Daiga Zute ◽

Āris Jansons

Keyword(s):

Scots Pine ◽

Forest Floor ◽

Mineral Soil ◽

Carbon Pool ◽

Carbon Pools ◽

Tree Biomass ◽

Old Growth ◽

Living Tree ◽

Pine Stands ◽

Scots Pine Stands

Old-growth forests are widely recognised for the benefits they provide for biodiversity; however, a more comprehensive understanding of their role in climate change mitigation must still be established to find the optimal balance between different forest ecosystem services at a national or regional scale. Very few studies have assessed carbon pools in old-growth Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.)-dominated boreal forests, and none have been conducted in hemiboreal forests. Therefore, we assessed the carbon storage of the living tree biomass, deadwood, forest floor (soil organic horizon, including all litter and decomposed wood), and mineral soil in 25 hemiboreal old-growth (163–218 years) unmanaged Scots pine stands in Latvia. The studied stands were without known records of any major natural or human-made disturbance in the visible past. Our results show, that the total ecosystem carbon pool (excluding ground vegetation) was 291.2 ± 54.2 Mg C ha−1, which was primarily composed of living tree biomass (59%), followed by mineral soil (31%), deadwood (5%), and the forest floor (5%). Within the studied stand age group, the total carbon pool remained stable; however, interchanges among the carbon pools, i.e., living biomass and laying deadwood, did occur.

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Impact of a pine lappet (Dendrolimus pini) mass outbreak on C and N fluxes to the forest floor and soil microbial properties in a Scots pine forest in Germany

Canadian Journal of Forest Research ◽

10.1139/x08-045 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 38 (7) ◽

pp. 1829-1841 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

Anne le Mellec ◽

Beate Michalzik

Keyword(s):

Scots Pine ◽

Forest Floor ◽

Herbivorous Insect ◽

Adenylate Energy Charge ◽

Organic C ◽

Microbial Properties ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

N Fluxes ◽

C And N ◽

Soil Microbial Properties

Herbivorous insect infestations significantly alter element and nutrient cycling in forests, thus directly and indirectly affecting ecosystem functioning. In this paper, we report on the herbivore-mediated transfer of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) from the canopy to the forest floor and its influence on soil microbial activity during a pine lappet ( Dendrolimus pini L.) infestation. Over the course of 6 months, we followed C and N fluxes in bulk deposition, throughfall, and green fall (green needle debris dropped during herbivory) together with solid frass (insect faeces) in an 80-year-old Scots pine ( Pinus silvestris L.) forest. Compared with the control, herbivore defoliation significantly doubled throughfall inputs of total and dissolved organic C and N over the study period. Frass plus green-fall C and N fluxes peaked in June–July at 110 kg C·ha–1 and 2.3 kg N·ha–1, respectively. Randomized intervention analysis revealed no significant effects of herbivory on soil microbial properties, except for adenylate energy charge, which showed slightly higher values under herbivory. This study demonstrates the importance of canopy herbivory on overall C and N inputs to forest ecosystems, particularly in altering the timing and quality of the organic material reaching the forest floor and potentially affecting belowground processes.

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