Bedrock Type Under Forests Greatly Affects Tree Growth, Species, Carbon Storage
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Bedrock type under forests greatly affects tree growth, species, carbon storage:
A forest's ability to store carbon depends significantly on the bedrock beneath, according to Penn State researchers who studied forest productivity, composition and associated physical characteristics of rocks in the Appalachian ridge and Valley Region of Pennsylvania.
The results have implications for forest management, researchers suggest, because forests growing on shale bedrock store 25% more live, aboveground carbon and grow faster, taking up about 55% more carbon each year than forests growing on sandstone bedrock.
[...] To reach their conclusions, researchers analyzed forest inventory data from 565 plots on state forest and game lands managed by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the state Game Commission in the Appalachian Ridge and Valley Region. They used a suite of GIS-derived landscape metrics, including measures of climate, topography and soil physical properties, to identify drivers of live forest carbon dynamics in relation to bedrock.
Those forest plots contained more than 23,000 trees, ranging from 20 to 200 years old, with most being 81 to 120 years old, according to the most recent available forest inventory data. In the study dataset, 381 plots were on sandstone bedrock and 184 were on shale-a similar ratio to the amount of Pennsylvania public land on each bedrock type in the Ridge and Valley Region.
[...] While forests underlain by both shale and sandstone bedrock were oak dominated, the tree communities are quite different, Reed pointed out. Northern red oak is more dominant on shale bedrock, and chestnut oak dominates on sandstone. Most species in the forest tend to be more productive on shale, and the diversity of tree species is higher in sites on shale bedrock.
Journal Reference:
Warren P. Reed, et al. Bedrock type drives forest carbon storage and uptake across the mid-Atlantic Appalachian Ridge and Valley, U.S.A., Forest Ecology and Management (DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2020.117881)
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