Decay rate of Larix gmelinii coarse woody debris on burned patches in the Greater Khingan Mountains
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Decay rate of Larix gmelinii coarse woody debris on burned patches in the Greater Khingan Mountains Shubo Huang1 · Lixiang Wen1 · Shuai Yin2 · Meng Guo1 · Fangbing Yu1
Received: 2 August 2020 / Accepted: 27 October 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract The decomposition of coarse woody debris (CWD) affects the energy flow and nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems. Previous studies on CWD have focused on the input, decomposition, reserve dynamics, and CWD functions, but coarse woody debris decomposition is complex and the results from different regions vary considerably. It is not clear which factors affect decay rate (k), especially at different decomposition stages. In this study, a singleexponential decay model was used to analyze the characteristics of CWD decomposition in Larix gmelinii forests over the 33 years following a fire in the Greater Khingan Mountains. The results show that the decay rate of coarse woody debris was positively correlated to decay class. The average decomposition rate was 0.019, and 41 years and 176 years are needed for a 50% and 95% mass loss, respectively. CWD nutrient content, density, and water content could explain the variance in the decay rate (~ 42%) of the decay factors such as amount of leaching, degree of fragmentation, respiration Project funding: This research was funded by the National Key Research and Development Projects, Grant Number 2018YFE0207800 and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Grant Number 41871103. The online version is available at http://www.springerlink.com. Corresponding editor: Yu Lei * Meng Guo [email protected] 1
Key Laboratory of Geographical Processes and Ecological Security in Changbai Mountains, School of Geographical Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Ministry of Education, Changchun 130024, People’s Republic of China
2
Center for Global Environmental Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba 3058506, Japan
of the debris, and biotransformation, and varied significantly between different decay classes. Using the space– time substitution method, this study arranged the coarse woody debris of different mortality times to form a 33 year chronosequence which revealed the decomposition process. It was concluded that the decay rate was mainly explained by structural component of the debris and its nitrogen and water contents. This paper quantifies the indicators affecting CWD decay to explain the decomposition process. Keywords Coarse woody debris · Decay rate · Space– time substitution · Boreal forest · Fire disturbance
Introduction Coarse woody debris (CWD) in the form of snags, downed boles or large branches is an important structural and functional component of forest ecosystems (Harmon et al. 1986). CWD affects biotic and abiotic processes through physical and biological effects and plays an important role in longterm nutrient storage and tree regeneration (Wu et al. 2005). It also provides habitats for various organisms and maintains environmental heterogeneity, biodiversity,
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