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Nave LE, DeLyser K, Domke GM, Holub SM, Janowiak MK, Keller AB, Peters MP, Solarik KA, Walters BF, Swanston CW. Land use change and forest management effects on soil carbon stocks in the Northeast U.S. CARBON BALANCE AND MANAGEMENT 2024; 19:5. [PMID: 38319455 PMCID: PMC10845599 DOI: 10.1186/s13021-024-00251-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2023] [Accepted: 01/24/2024] [Indexed: 02/07/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND In most regions and ecosystems, soils are the largest terrestrial carbon pool. Their potential vulnerability to climate and land use change, management, and other drivers, along with soils' ability to mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration, makes them important to carbon balance and management. To date, most studies of soil carbon management have been based at either large or site-specific scales, resulting in either broad generalizations or narrow conclusions, respectively. Advancing the science and practice of soil carbon management requires scientific progress at intermediate scales. Here, we conducted the fifth in a series of ecoregional assessments of the effects of land use change and forest management on soil carbon stocks, this time addressing the Northeast U.S. We used synthesis approaches including (1) meta-analysis of published literature, (2) soil survey and (3) national forest inventory databases to examine overall effects and underlying drivers of deforestation, reforestation, and forest harvesting on soil carbon stocks. The three complementary data sources allowed us to quantify direction, magnitude, and uncertainty in trends. RESULTS Our meta-analysis findings revealed regionally consistent declines in soil carbon stocks due to deforestation, whether for agriculture or urban development. Conversely, reforestation led to significant increases in soil C stocks, with variation based on specific geographic factors. Forest harvesting showed no significant effect on soil carbon stocks, regardless of place-based or practice-specific factors. Observational soil survey and national forest inventory data generally supported meta-analytic harvest trends, and provided broader context by revealing the factors that act as baseline controls on soil carbon stocks in this ecoregion of carbon-dense soils. These factors include a range of soil physical, parent material, and topographic controls, with land use and climate factors also playing a role. CONCLUSIONS Forest harvesting has limited potential to alter forest soil C stocks in either direction, in contrast to the significant changes driven by land use shifts. These findings underscore the importance of understanding soil C changes at intermediate scales, and the need for an all-lands approach to managing soil carbon for climate change mitigation in the Northeast U.S.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucas E Nave
- College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, 49931, USA.
- Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, Houghton, MI, 49931, USA.
| | | | - Grant M Domke
- USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA
| | | | - Maria K Janowiak
- Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, Houghton, MI, 49931, USA
- USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Houghton, MI, 49931, USA
| | - Adrienne B Keller
- College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, 49931, USA
- Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, Houghton, MI, 49931, USA
| | - Matthew P Peters
- USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Delaware, OH, 43015, USA
| | - Kevin A Solarik
- National Council for Air and Stream Improvement, Inc. (NCASI), Montréal, Québec, H3A 3H3, Canada
| | - Brian F Walters
- USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA
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Miller KM, Perles SJ, Schmit JP, Matthews ER, Weed AS, Comiskey JA, Marshall MR, Nelson P, Fisichelli NA. Overabundant deer and invasive plants drive widespread regeneration debt in eastern United States national parks. ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS : A PUBLICATION OF THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2023; 33:e2837. [PMID: 36890590 DOI: 10.1002/eap.2837] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2022] [Accepted: 01/19/2023] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
Advanced regeneration, in the form of tree seedlings and saplings, is critical for ensuring the long-term viability and resilience of forest ecosystems in the eastern United States. Lack of regeneration and/or compositional mismatch between regeneration and canopy layers, called regeneration debt, can lead to shifts in forest composition, structure, and, in extreme cases, forest loss. In this study, we examined status and trends in regeneration across 39 national parks from Virginia to Maine, spanning 12 years to apply the regeneration debt concept. We further refined the concept by adding new metrics and classifying results into easily interpreted categories adapted from the literature: imminent failure, probable failure, insecure, and secure. We then used model selection to determine the potential drivers most influencing patterns of regeneration debt. Status and trends indicated widespread regeneration debt in eastern national parks, with 27 of 39 parks classified as imminent or probable failure. Deer browse impact was consistently the strongest predictor of regeneration abundance. The most pervasive component of regeneration debt observed across parks was a sapling bottleneck, characterized by critically low sapling density of native canopy species and significant declines in native canopy sapling basal area or density for most parks. Regeneration mismatches also threaten forest resilience in many parks, where native canopy seedlings and saplings were outnumbered by native subcanopy species, particularly species that are less palatable deer browse. The devastating impact of emerald ash borer eliminating ash as a native canopy tree also drove regeneration mismatches in many parks that contain abundant ash regeneration, demonstrating the vulnerability of forests that lack diverse understories to invasive pests and pathogens. These findings underscore the critical importance of an integrated forest management approach that promotes an abundant and diverse regeneration layer. In most cases, this can only be achieved through long-term (i.e., multidecadal) management of white-tailed deer and invasive plants. Small-scale disturbances that increase structural complexity may also promote regeneration where stress from deer and invasive plants is minimal. Without immediate and sustained management intervention, the forest loss we are already observing may become a widespread pattern in eastern national parks and the broader region.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathryn M Miller
- National Park Service, Northeast Temperate Network and Mid-Atlantic Network, P.O. Box 177, Bar Harbor, Maine, 04609, USA
| | - Stephanie J Perles
- National Park Service, Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network, 420 Forest Resources Building, University Park, Pennsylvania, 16802, USA
| | - John Paul Schmit
- National Park Service, National Capital Region Network, 4598 MacArthur Boulevard NW, Washington, DC, 20007, USA
| | - Elizabeth R Matthews
- National Park Service, National Capital Region Network, 4598 MacArthur Boulevard NW, Washington, DC, 20007, USA
| | - Aaron S Weed
- National Park Service, Northeast Temperate Network, 54 Elm Street, Woodstock, Vermont, 05091, USA
| | - James A Comiskey
- National Park Service, Region 1 Inventory and Monitoring Division, 120 Chatham Lane, Fredericksburg, Virginia, 22405, USA
| | - Matthew R Marshall
- National Park Service, Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network, 420 Forest Resources Building, University Park, Pennsylvania, 16802, USA
| | - Peter Nelson
- Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park, P.O. Box 277, Winter Harbor, Maine, 04693, USA
| | - Nicholas A Fisichelli
- Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park, P.O. Box 277, Winter Harbor, Maine, 04693, USA
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Collings J, Endriss SB, Dávalos A. Multiple stressors prevent gains in native plant diversity following invasive species removal. Ecosphere 2023. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.4458] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/11/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Jeremy Collings
- Department of Biological Sciences SUNY Cortland Cortland New York USA
- Department of Biology University of Oregon Eugene Oregon USA
| | - Stacy B. Endriss
- Department of Natural Resources and the Environment Cornell University Ithaca New York USA
- Department of Environmental Sciences University of North Carolina Wilmington Wilmington North Carolina USA
| | - Andrea Dávalos
- Department of Biological Sciences SUNY Cortland Cortland New York USA
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Abella SR, Schetter TA, Gallaher TD. Rapid increase in sensitive indicator plants concurrent with deer management in an oak forest landscape. WILDLIFE SOC B 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/wsb.1377] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Scott R. Abella
- University of Nevada Las Vegas, School of Life Sciences Las Vegas NV 89154‐4004 USA
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Morrison JA, Roche B, Veatch‐Blohm M. Woody plant secondary chemicals increase in response to abundant deer and arrival of invasive plants in suburban forests. Ecol Evol 2022; 12:e8814. [PMID: 35432930 PMCID: PMC9006230 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.8814] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2021] [Revised: 03/11/2022] [Accepted: 03/20/2022] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Plants in suburban forests of eastern North America face the dual stressors of high white-tailed deer density and invasion by nonindigenous plants. Chronic deer herbivory combined with strong competition from invasive plants could alter a plant's stress- and defense-related secondary chemistry, especially for long-lived juvenile trees in the understory, but this has not been studied. We measured foliar total antioxidants, phenolics, and flavonoids in juveniles of two native trees, Fraxinus pennsylvanica (green ash) and Fagus grandifolia (American beech), growing in six forests in the suburban landscape of central New Jersey, USA. The trees grew in experimental plots subjected for 2.5 years to factorial treatments of deer access/exclosure × addition/no addition of the nonindigenous invasive grass Microstegium vimineum (Japanese stiltgrass). As other hypothesized drivers of plant secondary chemistry, we also measured nonstiltgrass herb layer cover, light levels, and water availability. Univariate mixed model analysis of the deer and stiltgrass effects and multivariate structural equation modeling (SEM) of all variables showed that both greater stiltgrass cover and greater deer pressure induced antioxidants, phenolics, and flavonoids, with some variation between species. Deer were generally the stronger factor, and stiltgrass effects were most apparent at high stiltgrass density. SEM also revealed that soil dryness directly increased the chemicals; deer had additional positive, but indirect, effects via influence on the soil; in beech photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) positively affected flavonoids; and herb layer cover had no effect. Juvenile trees' chemical defense/stress responses to deer and invasive plants can be protective, but also could have a physiological cost, with negative consequences for recruitment to the canopy. Ecological implications for species and their communities will depend on costs and benefits of stress/defense chemistry in the specific environmental context, particularly with respect to invasive plant competitiveness, extent of invasion, local deer density, and deer browse preferences.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Bernadette Roche
- Department of BiologyLoyola University MarylandBaltimoreMarylandUSA
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Differential and interacting impacts of invasive plants and white-tailed deer in eastern U.S. forests. Biol Invasions 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s10530-021-02551-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
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Abstract
Non-native earthworms can cause abrupt changes in forest ecosystems by altering soil properties and depleting or redistributing soil carbon (C) stocks. The forests of Northern Maine are often perceived as having winters that are too harsh to support earthworm populations and that earthworms are restricted to more southerly regions. In this study, we report the discovery of European earthworms at two research sites in Northern Maine. At one site, earthworms were only found across a portion of the forest, and the median organic (O) horizon C stock in the area with earthworms was 34% less than that of areas without earthworms. At a second site, earthworms were found across the entire 60-ha forest and the median O horizon C stock was 39% less than that of a similar forest without earthworms. Consistent with reports from other regions, areas with earthworms had no or minimal eluvial (E) horizons, while earthworm-free locations always had E horizons. Earthworm presence was always associated with a topsoil (A) horizon, reflecting mechanical mixing and organic matter processing by earthworms. This is one of the first reports of non-native earthworm presence in Northern Maine forests and monitoring changes in soil C will be important for determining rates of C sequestration in these forests. Warmer winter temperatures, particularly winter minimums, and greater annual precipitation will likely increase the success of new earthworm introductions across Northern Maine forests. Management actions that limit the transport of earthworms into earthworm-free areas should be carefully evaluated to minimize the potential for new introductions.
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Haffey CM, Gorchov DL. The effects of deer and an invasive shrub, Lonicera maackii, on forest understory plant composition. ECOSCIENCE 2019. [DOI: 10.1080/11956860.2019.1582195] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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