The growing season carbon balance of a sub-boreal clearcut 5 years after harvesting using two independent approaches to measure ecosystem CO2 flux

Abstract

From 27 June to 3 September 1999, CO2 fluxes from a 5-year-old, 84.15-ha vegetated clearcut in sub-boreal British Columbia were measured using a Bowen ratio energy balance (BREB) system and a second approach (the component model) that was based on scaled up CO2-flux measurements from belowground and plants (spruce seedlings and representative deciduous species). Over the 69-day study period both methods estimated the site to be a small sink for CO2 (–22.4 and –85 g C·m–2, respectively). Differences between the sink size of the two approaches largely resulted from a divergence in the data after 7 August when the BREB data indicated a switch from sink to source approximately 14 days in advance of the same change from sink to source seen in the component model data. The main components of the CO2 flux within the clearcut were belowground respiration (338 g C·m–2) and deciduous plant photosynthesis (–375 g C·m–2). The conifer seedlings were only a minor component in overall CO2 flux over the growing season (–48 g C·m–2). The small overall sink estimated for the site for the approximately 2.5-month growing period would likely have been surmounted by the belowground respiration if the yearly CO2 fluxes had been taken into account. For example, an additional 68 g C·m–2 was added to the atmosphere from 3 to 23 September (based on belowground respiration data only), after deciduous plants senesced. This source alone was enough to push the site from a sink to a source for CO2.