Repeated thinning treatments reduce long-term soil carbon and nitrogen storage: an 87-year study at the Petawawa Research Forest, Canada

Abstract

Forest management activities are increasingly analyzed through a lens that quantifies their effects on soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) storage because forest soils are an important C sink. Data on the longer-term impacts of repeated interventions are often lacking. At the Petawawa Research Forest, Ontario, Canada, treatments to evaluate the effect of repeated thinnings on wood quality of red pine (Pinus resinosa Aiton) and white pine (Pinus strobus L.) were initiated in 1918 with the first experimental plots in Canada: permanent sample plots 1 (thinned) and 2 (control). In 2005, 16 years after the last thinning in 1989, we observed that repeated thinnings reduced soil C and N stocks in the surface L, F, and Ah horizons. Contrary to our hypotheses, concentrations and stocks of C and N increased in the Bm1 horizon, indicating that these elements could be accumulated in deeper horizons after surface disturbance and potentially increased decomposition associated with thinning. However, total C and N accumulation in the profile to 30 cm contributed to reduced storage (–35% for C and –30% for N). Many forest sites in the Great Lakes Forest Region that are selectively cut repeatedly over decades could experience this level of soil C and N decline.