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- Title
Greenhouse gas emissions after a prescribed fire in white birch-dwarf bamboo stands in northern Japan, focusing on the role of charcoal.
- Authors
Kim, Yong; Makoto, Kobayashi; Takakai, Fumiaki; Shibata, Hideaki; Satomura, Takami; Takagi, Kentaro; Hatano, Ryusuke; Koike, Takayoshi
- Abstract
Forest fires affect both carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling in forest ecosystems, and thereby influence the soil-atmosphere exchange of major greenhouse gases (GHGs): carbon dioxide (CO), methane (CH), and nitrous oxide (NO). To determine changes in the soil GHG fluxes following a forest fire, we arranged a low-intensity surface fire in a white birch forest in northern Japan. We established three treatments, having four replications each: a control plot (CON), a burned plot (BURN), and a plot burned with removal of the resulting charcoal (BURN-CHA). Soil GHG fluxes and various properties of the soil were determined on four or five occasions during a period that spanned two growing seasons. We observed increased concentrations of ammonium-N (NH-N) in BURN and BURN-CHA after the fire, while nitrate-N (NO-N) concentration was only increased in BURN-CHA after the fire. The soil CO flux was significantly higher in CON than in BURN or BURN-CHA, but there was no difference in soil CH uptake between the three treatments. Moreover, the NO flux from BURN-CHA soil was slightly greater than in CON or BURN. In BURN-CHA, the soil NO flux peaked in August, but there was no peak in BURN. We found temporal correlations between soil GHG fluxes and soil variables, e.g. soil temperature or NO-N. Our results suggest that environmental changes following fire, including the increased availability of N and the disappearance of the litter layer, have the potential to change soil GHG fluxes. Fire-produced charcoal could be significant in reducing soil NO flux in temperate forests.
- Subjects
FOREST fires; CHARCOAL; GREENHOUSE gas mitigation; CARBON dioxide; METHANE; NITROGEN oxides
- Publication
European Journal of Forest Research, 2011, Vol 130, Issue 6, p1031
- ISSN
1612-4669
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s10342-011-0490-8