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    Original Research Papers

    Net ecosystem productivity of temperate and boreal forests after clearcutting—a Fluxnet-Canada measurement and modelling synthesis

    Authors:

    R. F. Grant ,

    Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E3, CA
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    A. G. Barr,

    Climate Research Branch, Meteorological Service of Canada Saskatoon, SK, S7N 3H5, CA
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    T. A. Black,

    Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC, V6T 1Z4, CA
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    H. A. Margolis,

    Faculté de Foresterie et de Géomatique, Pavillon Abitibi-Price, Université Laval, Québec, PQ, G1K 7P4, CA
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    J. H. McCaughey,

    Department of Geography, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6, CA
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    J. A. Trofymow

    Canadian Forest Service, Pacific Forestry Centre, Victoria, BC, V8Z 1M5, CA
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    Abstract

    Clearcutting strongly affects subsequent forest net ecosystem productivity (NEP). Hypotheses for ecological controls on NEP in the ecosystem model ecosys were tested with CO2 fluxes measured by eddy covariance (EC) in three postclearcut conifer chronosequences in different ecological zones across Canada. In the model, microbial colonization of postharvest fine and woody debris drove heterotrophic respiration (Rh), and hence decomposition, microbial growth, N mineralization and asymbiotic N2 fixation. These processes controlled root N uptake, and thereby CO2 fixation in regrowing vegetation. Interactions among soil and plant processes allowed the model to simulate hourly CO2 fluxes and annual NEP within the uncertainty of EC measurements from 2003 to 2007 over forest stands from 1 to 80 yr of age in all three chronosequences without site- or species-specific parameterization. The model was then used to study the impacts of increasing harvest removals on subsequent C stocks at one of the chronosequence sites. Model results indicated that increasing harvest removals would hasten recovery of NEP during the first 30 yr after clearcutting, but would reduce ecosystem C stocks by about 15% of the increased removals at the end of an 80-yr harvest cycle.

    How to Cite: Grant, R.F., Barr, A.G., Black, T.A., Margolis, H.A., McCaughey, J.H. and Trofymow, J.A., 2010. Net ecosystem productivity of temperate and boreal forests after clearcutting—a Fluxnet-Canada measurement and modelling synthesis. Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology, 62(5), pp.475–496. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0889.2010.00500.x
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      Published on 01 Jan 2010
    Peer Reviewed
     CC BY 4.0
     Accepted on 9 Jul 2010            Submitted on 28 Nov 2009

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