Nutrient cycling and biomass growth at a North American hardwood site in relation to climate change: ForSVA assessments

Abstract

The biomass growth and nutrient cycling model ‘ForSVA’ (forest-soil-vegetation-atmosphere model) is used to analyze potential changes in nutrient cycling (Ca, Mg, K, N, S) and forest biomass production in response to four climate-change scenarios. The analysis is done for an old-growth hardwood stand within the Turkey Lakes watershed north of Lake Superior, Ontario. With ForSVA, any effects due to species interactions, competition, and resulting species shifts are not addressed explicitly. Instead, the calculations are based on functional relationships that primarily respond to soil and climate conditions in general, and to structural changes within the forest itself. The simulations cover a period of about 200 years, and suggest that a principal change in annual pattern of soil moisture is to be expected for the UKMO climate scenario, and that this scenario will likely induce a major change of vegetation covertype resulting from major changes in seasonal soil moisture conditions and a general lack of snow during winter. In contrast, the OSU, GISS and GFDL scenarios should not cause a principal change in forest type, but the soil will be somewhat drier than what is currently the case. However, increased precipitation rates and/or air temperatures during summer and spring should, in combination, increase actual evapotranspiration rates, and such increases should increase net primary production. For example, calculations with GFDL suggest that cumulative wood biomass at the Turkey Lakes site can be expected to increase by 25%. Foliage biomass and fine root production can be expected to increase by 70% from current conditions. It is assumed that within-tree allocation of photosynthate is not affected by climate.