LTREB: Drivers of temperate forest carbon storage from canopy closure through successional time

对森林的干扰，如伐木或野火，通常会导致生态系统中植物和土壤的碳和养分大量流失。几乎所有森林都处于从这种干扰中恢复的某种状态，无论是自然造成的还是人为造成的。 关于森林在受到干扰后恢复其原有碳和养分量所需时间的知识并不完整，也不了解随着森林老化，再生植物、恢复土壤和气候的年与年之间的变化如何相互作用以控制恢复。该项目利用密歇根大学生物站森林中长期存在的研究地块，以了解森林结构，森林碳和氮含量的变化以及气候变化如何随着时间的推移共同影响树木生长的速度，氮的保留以及碳在森林中的捕获和储存。科学家和学生将定期测量树木的类型，它们的茎的大小和质量，它们的叶子排列模式，土壤中的碳和氮的含量，以及1936年，1948年，1954年，1980年和1998年砍伐和烧毁的五个森林中的其他因素，因此今天的年龄从15岁到115岁不等。 附近几个更古老的森林也将被采样。这将使该项目联系干扰，气候和生态的森林，是广泛代表那些在美国北方，加拿大，欧洲和亚洲。该项目将涉及学生和森林管理人员的研究部分，并在实际森林管理的结果的应用。本科生将帮助设计和进行树木和土壤特性的定期实地测量。 研究结果将用于夏季野外站学生学习的一般生态学和森林生态系统课程。本科生和研究生也将能够使用地块和其他数据进行自己的研究项目。该小组还将为州和联邦机构的森林管理人员以及当地保护团体的森林管理人员举办实地考察和讲习班。

Disturbances to forests, such as logging or wildfires, typically lead to large losses of carbon and nutrients from both the plants and soils of the ecosystem. Virtually all forests are in some state of recovery from such disturbances, whether caused naturally or by humans. Knowledge of the time required for a forest to recover its original amounts of carbon and nutrients after a disturbance is not complete, nor is an understanding of how regrowing plants, recovering soils and the year to year variation in climate interact to control recovery as a forest ages. This project takes advantage of long existing research plots in forests at the University of Michigan Biological Station to figure out how changes in forest structure, carbon and nitrogen contents of the forests, and variations in climate act together through time to influence how fast trees grow, nitrogen is retained, and carbon is captured and stored in forests. Scientists and students will make regular measurements of the types of trees, their stem sizes and mass, their patterns of leaf arrangement, the amounts of carbon and nitrogen in soils, and other factors in five forest that were cut and burned in 1936, 1948, 1954, 1980, and 1998 and so today range from 15 years to 115 years old. Several nearby much older forests will also be sampled. This will let the project link disturbances, climate and ecology for forests that are broadly representative of those across the northern United States, Canada, Europe and Asia.This project will involve students and forest managers in portions of the research and in the application of results to actual forest management. Undergraduate students will help design and carry out regular field measurements of tree and soil properties. Results will be used in general ecology and forest ecosystem courses taken by students at the field station in the summer. Both undergraduate and graduate students will also be able to use the plots and other data to conduct their own research projects. The team will also host site visits and conduct workshops for forest managers in state and federal agencies, as well as those in local conservation groups.