Carbon Pools of European Beech Forests (Fagus Sylvatica) Under Different Silvicultural Management
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Carbon pools of European beech forests (Fagus sylvatica) under different silvicultural management Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Fakultät für Forstwissenschaften und Waldökologie der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen Martina Mund geboren am 27. Oktober 1969 in Arnsberg Published in: Berichte des Forschungszentrums Waldökosysteme Reihe A, Band 189, 256 pp. ISSN 0939-1347 D7 1. Berichterstatter und Prüfer: Prof. Dr. Friedrich Beese 2. Berichterstatter und Prüfer: Prof. Dr. Burghard von Lüpke 3. Berichterstatter und Prüfer: Prof. Dr. Ernst-Detlef Schulze 4. Prüfer: Prof. Dr. Klaus von Gadow Eingereicht: Februar 2004 Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 02. April 2004 Acknowledgments Many people have supported my Ph.D. study in many different ways. I want to thank especially my advisors who were always interested in my studies and stimulated the progress by many encouraging scientific discussions. I thank Prof. Dr. Ernst-Detlef Schulze for offering me the opportunity to work at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena. I thank him particularly for his critical but always motivating discussions. I am very grateful to Prof. Dr. Friedrich Beese who “adopted” me as a student of the University of Göttingen and who was always willing to discuss critical questions of forest management and soil science. Many thanks go to my friends and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry: Agnes Fastnacht and Olaf Kolle for their never-ending support during field work and in solving technical problems, Iris Kuhlmann, Ines Hilke, Katarina Schenk and Antje Seckerdieck for their assistance with the large amount of laboratory work, Jens Schumacher for teaching me many “secrets” of statistical analysis, Christian Wirth, Alexander Knohl, Astrid Søe and Reiner Zimmermann for many fruitful discussions and good cooperation, Tiemo Kahl for his support in the field to measure snags and logs, Andrew Manning, Vicky Temperton, Annette Freibauer and Axel Don for helpful comments on the manuscript, Annett Börner for her assistance in graphical presentations. Many thanks go to the people from the workshop, namely Bernd Schlöffel and Reimo Leppert, the computer department, the library and the administration. I thank in particular the colleagues of the FORCAST-project for fruitful discussions and for providing their data: Tryggve Persson, Giorgio Matteucci, Francesca Cotrufo, Ingo Schöning, Marco Bascietto, Bernd Zeller, Alberto Masci, Massimiliano Hajny, Harmke van Oene and Volker Hahn. I thank the forestry administration of Thuringia, namely Mr. Weller (TLWJF), Mr. Weber (TLWJF) and Mr. Eckardt (TMLNU) for supporting my research and for valuable information about forest management in Thuringia. I thank Manfred Grossmann, Karola Marbach and Thomas Möhlich and the administration of the Hainich National Park for their support of my research in the Park and for providing much information about the Hainich National Park and its history. I thank the local foresters Mr. Fritzlar, Mr. Biehl, Mr. Willner (sen.), Mr. Willner (jun.), Mr. Trümper, Mr. Posselt, Mr. Meyer, Mr. Fahrig and Mr. Kohlstedt for providing forestry maps and data and much unwritten valuable information about former and current management of the study sites. For valuable discussions about soil classification I thank Mr. Burse (TLWJF), Wolfgang Brandner (TLUG) and Dr. Philipp Jaesche (TU München). I thank Prof. Dr. Wittecke (FH Schwarzburg) for all the information and data about forest history. I thank Dr. Siegfried Klaus (TLUG) for his help to get to know the Hainich NP. Special thanks go to the private landowners of the “Laubgenossenschaften” Langula, Oberdorla and Oppershausen. I gratefully acknowledge all friends and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute: Lina Mercado, Claudia Czimczik, Waldemar Ziegler, Gerd Gleixner, Anna Ekberg, Antje Weitz, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Angelika Thuille, Stephanie Nöllert, Corinna Rebmann, Constanze Schaaf, Armin Jordan, Hannes Böttcher and Peter Anthoni for helpful discussions and good cooperation. I thank my parents, Gabriele and Friedhelm Mund, and my sisters Raphaela and Veronika, for their encouraging support, their love and trust in me throughout my life. In particular I thank Ralf Schindek for his never-ending love, support and patience during the last 11 years. Content 1. INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Forest ecosystems and the global carbon budget ............................................................ 1 1.2 Impacts of forest management on the carbon budget of forests...................................... 1 1.3 Forest management and the Kyoto Protocol ................................................................... 3 1.4 Main objectives and hypotheses of this study................................................................. 4 2 TERMINOLOGY OF THIS STUDY ............................................................................................... 7 3 MATERIAL AND METHODS.................................................................................................... 11 3.1 General approaches ....................................................................................................... 11 3.2 Regional distribution of the study sites......................................................................... 12 3.3 Statistical design and analysis....................................................................................... 16 3.3.1 Data sampling and replicates.................................................................................. 16 3.3.2 Statistical analysis and software............................................................................. 19 3.4 The study sites and plots ............................................................................................... 20 3.4.1 Geography .............................................................................................................. 20 3.4.2 Climate ................................................................................................................... 21 3.4.3 Selection of the study plots .................................................................................... 22 3.4.4 Geology and general soil characteristics................................................................ 23 3.4.5 Vegetation .............................................................................................................. 27 3.4.6 Recent silviculture and stand structure................................................................... 27 3.4.6.1 Even-aged stands of the regular shelterwood systems .................................... 27 3.4.6.2 Uneven-aged stands of the selection system................................................... 29 3.4.6.3 Uneven-aged and unmanaged stands of the Hainich Nationalpark................. 30 3.4.7 Land use history ..................................................................................................... 31 3.5 Cooperation with other research projects...................................................................... 45 4 STAND STRUCTURE AND BIOMASS........................................................................................ 47 4.1 Methods......................................................................................................................... 47 4.1.1 Forest inventory...................................................................................................... 47 4.1.2 Coarse woody debris and large dead wood (snags and logs)................................. 55 4.2 Results ........................................................................................................................... 58 4.2.1 Forest inventory...................................................................................................... 58 4.2.1.1 Diameter distribution....................................................................................... 58 4.2.1.2 General forest stand characteristics................................................................. 65 4.2.2 Carbon pools in living tree biomass....................................................................... 72 4.2.3 Carbon pools in dead wood biomass (snags, logs and CWD) ................................77 5 LITTER FALL, ABOVEGROUND LITTER DECOMPOSITION AND CARBON POOLS IN THE ORGANIC LAYER ...................................................................................................................81 5. 1 Methods.........................................................................................................................81 5.1.1 Litter fall .................................................................................................................81 5.1.2 Organic layer...........................................................................................................83 5.1.3 Mean residence time of leaf litter and fine woody debris (FWD) ..........................84 5.1.3.1 Incubation of leaf litter bags .............................................................................84 5.1.3.2 The "ratio-approach".........................................................................................85 5.2 Results............................................................................................................................86 5.2.1 Litter fall .................................................................................................................86