Carbon storage recovery in surviving lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) 11 years after mountain pine beetle attack in northern British Columbia, Canada

Abstract

We studied the recovery of tree- and stand-level carbon (C) storage in a lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud. var. latifolia Engelm.) forest in northern British Columbia that experienced substantial (∼83%) mortality in 2006–2007 (total loss by 2013 = 86%) during a severe mountain pine beetle (MPB; Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins, 1902) infestation. Earlier work suggested that this forest recovered positive annual C storage 3 years after attack based on eddy covariance measurements. We sought to confirm these results by examining C storage in surviving pine trees using tree core analysis. Average growth release of surviving lodgepole pine trees was 392% (range of –53% to 2326%) compared with mean decadal growth prior to MPB attack. Nearly 97% of trees underwent a growth release, considerably higher than the 15%–75% reported for lodgepole pine in previous studies. Mean annual stem C storage of the surviving trees in this study was highly correlated (r = 0.88) with 10 years of annual net ecosystem productivity estimates made using the eddy covariance technique, indicating that surviving lodgepole pine remain an important part of C recovery after MPB attack. Mean annual stem C storage was also highly correlated (r = 0.92) with the cumulative percentage of downed stems per hectare at the site, suggesting that increased availability of resources is likely assisting the growth release.