Contrasts in carbon and nitrogen ecosystem budgets in adjacent Norway spruce and Appalachian hardwood watersheds in the Fernow Experimental Forest, West Virginia

Author

• Kelly, Charlene
• Schoenholtz, Stephen
• Adams, Mary Beth

Year Published

2011

Publication

In: Medley, C.N.; Patterson, Glenn; Parker, M.J., eds. Observing, studying and managing for change -- Proceedings of the fourth interagency conference on research in the watersheds. Scientific Investigations Rep. 2011-5169. Reston, VA: U.S. Department of Interior, Geological Survey: 121-126.

Abstract

We constructed watershed mass-balance budgets of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) and measured seasonal net N mineralization in an attempt to account for nearly 40 years of large discrepancies in stream NO_3-N export in two adjacent, gauged watersheds at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service's Fernow Experimental Forest, WV. These watersheds have similar management histories, varying primarily by vegetation cover, where one watershed is a monoculture of Norway spruce (Picea abies) and the other has regenerated to native Appalachian hardwoods. Long-term stream chemistry indicates that the hardwood watershed has approached N-saturation, with relatively high stream export of nitrate-N (15 kg N0₃^--N/ha/yr), whereas the spruce watershed exports virtually no nitrate-N.

Keywords

• Fernow Experimental Forest
• Norway spruce
• carbon
• nitrogen

Citation

Kelly, Charlene; Schoenholtz, Stephen; Adams, Mary Beth. 2011. Contrasts in carbon and nitrogen ecosystem budgets in adjacent Norway spruce and Appalachian hardwood watersheds in the Fernow Experimental Forest, West Virginia. In: Medley, C.N.; Patterson, Glenn; Parker, M.J., eds. Observing, studying and managing for change -- Proceedings of the fourth interagency conference on research in the watersheds. Scientific Investigations Rep. 2011-5169. Reston, VA: U.S. Department of Interior, Geological Survey: 121-126.

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