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植物和土壤中的碳和营养物质大量流失。几乎所有的森林都在某种程度上从自然或人为造成的这种干扰中恢复过来。对森林在受到干扰后恢复其原始碳和营养所需时间的了解并不完全，对植物的再生、土壤的恢复以及气候的年复一年变化如何相互作用以控制森林年龄的恢复的了解也不完全。该项目利用了密歇根大学生物站在森林中长期存在的研究地块，以弄清楚森林结构、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作用，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种类、茎的大小和质量、叶片的排列方式、土壤中的碳和氮的含量以及其他因素，这些森林分别在1936年、1948年、1954年、1980年和1998年被砍伐和焚烧，至今已有15年至115年的历史。附近一些更古老的森林也将被取样。这将使该项目将美国北部、加拿大、欧洲和亚洲具有广泛代表性的森林的干扰、气候和生态联系起来。这个项目将使学生和森林管理人员参与部分研究和将结果应用于实际的森林管理。本科生将帮助设计和执行树木和土壤特性的定期实地测量。研究结果将用于野外研究站学生夏季选修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这些图和其他数据来进行他们自己的研究项目。该小组还将主持实地考察，并为州和联邦机构以及当地保护组织的森林管理人员举办讲习班。

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.