Forest Floor Carbon Dioxide Evolution: Measurement and Modeling at Landscape Scales

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Bolstad The overall objectives of this study are to determine the range o spatial and temporal heterogeneity in CO2 evolution from eastern deciduous forest floors, and to develop and validate a landscape-scale forest floor CO2 evolution model,. This project would measure multiple abiotic and biotic factors, and couple these to forest floor CO2 evolution over a large area using a variety of modeling and scaling techniques. The 1600 ha main basin of the Coweeta Hydrologic lab in the Southern Appalachian Mountains will be the physical focus of our research. Measured factors will include soil temperature, soil moisture, litter quality and quantity, fine and coarse root biomass, N, and C, and soil N and C. We will then integrate these factors with mappable landscape parameters such as elevation, terrain position, soil characteristics, vegetation type, age, and structure, in a series of models which predict forest floor CO2 evolution across the landscape. The proposed research will utilize the measurements of the spatial and temporal variation in forest CO2 evolution to develop models which link abiotic and biotic driving variables with forest floor CO2 evolution. These will help understand and predict ecosystem-level changes in CO2 response to short-term and long-term changes in environmental and global conditions.