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Rights Statements InC/1.0 , Open Access
Journal article
Carbon storage in subalpine tree island, North Cascade Range, Washington
Northwest science., Vol.77(3), pp.255-268
2003
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/794
Abstract
Quantifying carbon (C) pools in subalpine systems is an important first step to understanding the effects of climatic variability on terrestrial C dynamics in temperate mountainous regions. We quantified C and other soil characteristics for tree islands and the vegetatively distinct meadows surrounding the tree islands at three subalpine sites (Thornton Lakes, Heather Pass, and Harts Pass) in the North Cascade Range, Washington, USA. O-horizon C storage ranged from 0.6 to 2.6 kg m-2 in meadows and from 3.1 to 5.8 kg m-2 in tree islands. Gradual vegetative transitions and similar soil depths result in similar quantities of mineral soil C in meadows and tree islands at Thornton Lakes (8.1 vs. 8.3 kg m-2) and Heather Pass (7.9 vs. 10.3 kg m-2). Abrupt vegetative transitions and deeper soils may allow more mineral-soil C to be stored in meadows than tree islands at Harts Pass (14.1 vs. 7.2 kg m-2), although these mean values are not significantly different due to high variability in soil profile properties. Mean C concentrations in mineral soil horizons have no consistent relationship with vegetation type (tree island vs. meadow). Total ecosystem C storage is higher in tree islands (range, 35.1 to 98.5 kg m-2) than meadows (range, 7.4 to 18.0 kg m-2), primarily due to large amounts of C in the aboveground biomass of trees. Consequently, the effects of future climatic variability on C storage in subalpine ecosystems will largely depend on the degree to which conditions that limit tree island expansion (winter snowpack, summer drought) are affected.
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Details
- Title
- Carbon storage in subalpine tree island, North Cascade Range, Washington
- Creators
- Carolyn L. Sanscrainte (Author)Oavid L. Peterson (Author)Steven McKay (Author)
- Publication Details
- Northwest science., Vol.77(3), pp.255-268
- Academic Unit
- Northwest Science
- Publisher
- WSU Press
- Identifiers
- 99900501586501842
- Copyright
- In copyright ; openAccess ; http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ ; http://purl.org/eprint/accessRights/OpenAccess
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article