Abstract
The contribution of litterfall (dead leaves, twigs, etc., fallen to the ground) and forest floor (organic residues such as leaves, twigs, etc., in various stages of decomposition, on the top of the mineral soil) is fundamental in both forest ecosystem sustainability and soil greenhouse gases (GHG) exchange system with the atmosphere. The effect of different thinning treatments (control-no thinning, traditional-low thinning, selective-intense thinning) on litterfall and forest floor nutrients, in relation to soil GHG fluxes, is analyzed. After one year of operations, thinning had a significant seasonal effect on both litterfall and forest floor, and on their nutrient concentrations. The intense (selective) thinning significantly affected the total litterfall production and conifer fractions, reducing them by 46% and 48%, respectively, compared with the control (no thinning) sites. In the forest floor, thinning was able to significantly increase the Fe concentration intraditional thinning by 59%, and Zn concentration in the intense thinning by 55% (compared with control). Overall, litterfall acted as a bio-filter of the gasses emitting from the forest floor, acting as a GHG regulator.
Highlights
In a climate change context, forest ecosystems play a key role due to the removal of anthropogenic CO2 emissions from the atmosphere and their sequestration as carbon [1].Forest can store carbon in different pools such as living biomass, root system, dead wood, litter, organic and mineral soil [2,3,4]
net ecosystem productivity (NEP) represents the sum of changes of these pools and any alteration of them due to implementation of forest sustainable practices affects the NEP balance [9]
The plantations began in the 1940s with most of them established by the mid-1970s [30], with Calabrian pine (Pinus brutia Ten) being the dominant species, whereas Maritime pine (Pinus maritima Mill), Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.), Mediterranean cypress (Cupressus sempervirens L.) and Austrian pine
Summary
In a climate change context, forest ecosystems play a key role due to the removal of anthropogenic CO2 emissions from the atmosphere and their sequestration as carbon [1].Forest can store carbon in different pools such as living biomass, root system, dead wood, litter, organic and mineral soil [2,3,4]. Due to the high dynamic of forest ecosystems, the adoption of reduction and mitigation targets in the forest sector was one of the principles of the Kyoto Protocol as part of a broader climate change platform [7]. In this sense, the implementation of forest management practices, such as thinning [5,8], affect the rate of carbon accumulation in the forest ecosystem due to changes in aboveground live biomass, the soil properties such as aggregate formation, the water content, the soil pH and the net ecosystem productivity (NEP). NEP represents the sum of changes of these pools and any alteration of them due to implementation of forest sustainable practices affects the NEP balance [9]
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