Harvard Forest Research

Effects of vegetation type, land use and disturbance history on forest-atmosphere carbon, water and energy exchange: A comparison among three differing sites at the Harvard Forest

Principal Investigator: Julian Hadley
Harvard Forest: Aug 01 2007 - Jul 31 2010:

Abstract:
We will use three different forested sites in central Massachusetts that have very similar macroclimate to measure spatial variation in ecosystem-atmosphere exchanges of carbon, water and energy and the non-climatic causes of this spatial variation. Two of the forests are deciduous: a 65-100 year old deciduous forest on abandoned agricultural land that has already been studied for more than a decade and is relatively well understood, plus a younger deciduous forest, also on abandoned agricultural land, that was established after fire in 1957. The third forest is coniferous, includes trees up to about 220 years old, and has existed on the site for thousands of years. The three forests thus differ in land use/land management and disturbance history, as well as in average tree age and the deciduous versus coniferous nature of the trees. These are all variables of interest in the continued development of the AmeriFlux network of sites, designed to measure (in cooperation with Fluxnet Canada) ecosystem-atmosphere fluxes of carbon, water and energy across the North American continent and identify the major physical and biological controls on these fluxes. In combination with modeling efforts, AmeriFlux contributes to the development of a carbon budget for North America and climate-driven carbon exchange models that can help to predict future carbon budgets for the continent.: