Understory removal and prescribed fire to manipulate forest vegetation cover in a southern Appalachian hardwood forest: Effects on soil and stream biogeochemistry
Abstract
Here we present data on soil and water chemistry from a new forest management regime that manipulated system diversity through the removal of rhododendron and the use of repeated low-severity prescribed fire. We contend that this new management approach will enhance water supplies and biodiversity while maintaining production and ecosystem resilience at the watershed scale, the scale relevant to land-use management and decision-making. Our objectives are to: 1) use repeated prescribed burns to transition from dominance by mesophytic species to dominance by xerophytic species, and 2) quantify the benefit of the management action on soil and water quality. The specific scope of analysis will be to (1) quantify changes in pools and fluxes of key chemical constituents of ecosystem soil and water in response to the combined effects of climate variability and experimental treatment at the watershed scale and (2) identify key mechanisms affecting biogeochemical cycling in a forested ecosystem following the experimental treatment. We hypothesize that the treatment will reduce total aboveground C and N pools, increase Oe+Oa horizon decomposition, and increase soil N availability in the first years following the treatment, but there will be negligible effects on water quality (e.g., increased nutrient and sediment export) both immediately following the treatment and over the long term.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2022
- Bibcode:
- 2022AGUFMGC32K0728M