Abstract
As an ecological unit, coarse woody debris (CWD) plays an essential role in productivity, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, community regeneration and biodiversity. However, thus far, the information on quantification the decomposition and nutrient content of CWD in forest ecosystems remains considerably limited. In this study, we conducted a long-term (1996–2013) study on decay and nutrient dynamics of CWD for evaluating accurately the ecological value of CWD on the Huoditang Experimental Forest Farm in the Qinling Mountains, China. The results demonstrated that there was a strong correlation between forest biomass and CWD mass. The single exponential decay model well fit the CWD density loss at this site, and as the CWD decomposed, the CWD density decreased significantly. Annual temperature and precipitation were all significantly correlated with the annual mass decay rate. The K contents and the C/N ratio of the CWD decreased as the CWD decayed, but the C, N, P, Ca and Mg contents increased. We observed a significant CWD decay effect on the soil C, N and Mg contents, especially the soil C content. The soil N, P, K, Ca and Mg contents exhibited large fluctuations, but the variation had no obvious regularity and changed with different decay times. The results showed that CWD was a critical component of nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems. Further research is needed to determine the effect of diameter, plant tissue components, secondary wood compounds, and decomposer organisms on the CWD decay rates in the Qinling Mountains, which will be beneficial to clarifying the role of CWD in carbon cycles of forest ecosystems.
Highlights
Coarse woody debris (CWD) can be produced under conditions of growth competition between trees, natural death of forests at old ages, natural interferences and human interferences [1,2]
The average annual BCWD in the P. armandi forest (9.78±1.82 tÁha-1) was significantly higher than that in the Q. aliena var. acuteserrata forest (8.23±1.63 tÁha-1) (P
The BCWD of the P. armandi and Q. aliena var. acuteserrata forests in the Qinling Mountains was at the lower limit of global records (8–200 tÁha-1) [12] and was lower than that measured in the monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forest of Dinghushan (38.54 tÁha-1) [40] and an Abies fargesii forest close to our study site (15.85 tÁha-1) [31]
Summary
Coarse woody debris (CWD) can be produced under conditions of growth competition between trees, natural death of forests at old ages, natural interferences (e.g., wind, rain, snow, fire, lightning, insects, debris flow, and invasion of fungi) and human interferences (logging, hacking trees) [1,2]. As an ecological unit [3], CWD plays an essential role in productivity [4], nutrient cycling [5,6], carbon sequestration [7,8], community regeneration [9] and biodiversity [10,11]. If CWD is not included, it is possible to underestimate global forest detritus by 2– 16×1013 kg; the relative error associated with this value is 2–10% [12]. Decay and nutrient dynamics of coarse woody debris
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