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Long-term development of above- and below-ground carbon stocks following land-use change in subalpine ecosystems of the Swiss National Park
Journal article

Long-term development of above- and below-ground carbon stocks following land-use change in subalpine ecosystems of the Swiss National Park

  • Risch, Anita C. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Forestry Science Laboratory, 1221 South Main Street, Moscow, ID 83843, USA.
  • Jurgensen, Martin F. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Forestry Science Laboratory, 1221 South Main Street, Moscow, ID 83843, USA.
  • Page-Dumroese, Deborah S. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Forestry Science Laboratory, 1221 South Main Street, Moscow, ID 83843, USA.
  • Wildi, Otto USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Forestry Science Laboratory, 1221 South Main Street, Moscow, ID 83843, USA.
  • Schütz, Martin USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Forestry Science Laboratory, 1221 South Main Street, Moscow, ID 83843, USA.
Published in:
  • Canadian Journal of Forest Research. - Canadian Science Publishing. - 2008, vol. 38, no. 6, p. 1590-1602
Ecology
Forestry
Global and Planetary Change
English Vegetation changes following agricultural land abandonment at high elevation — which is frequent in Europe — could have a major impact on carbon (C) sequestration. However, most information on the effects of vegetation changes on ecosystem C stocks originates from low-elevation studies on reforestation or early successional forests, and little is known about how these stocks change during long-term secondary forest succession and at high elevation. We assessed aboveground, belowground, and ecosystem organic matter and C stocks in high-elevation ecosystems that represent the long-term development (centuries) following land abandonment: short- and tall-grass pastures, Swiss mountain pine (Pinus mugo Turra), mixed-conifer, and Swiss stone pine ( Pinus cembra L.) – European larch ( Larix decidua P. Mill.) forests. Aboveground C stocks were lowest in the short-grass pastures (0.1 Mg C·ha–1) and reached a maximum in the mixed-conifer and stone pine – larch forests (166 Mg C·ha–1). Belowground C stocks did not differ among the ecosystems studied. We only detected ecosystem C sequestration during reforestation; whereas no significant differences in ecosystem C stocks were found during long-term secondary forest development. Our calculations showed that only an additional 1733–3032 Mg C·year–1 would be sequestered owing to natural reforestation in high-elevation Switzerland, which likely can be considered negligible compared with total annual C sequestration calculated for Swiss forests in other studies.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
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Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/139677
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