Edward H. Hogg

Increased carbon sequestration by a boreal deciduous forest in years with a warm spring

A boreal deciduous forest in Saskatchewan, Canada, sequestered 144±65, 80±60, 116±35 and 290±50 g C m−2 y−1 in 1994, 1996, 1997 and 1998, respectively. The increased carbon sequestration was the result of a warmer spring and earlier leaf emergence, which significantly increased ecosystem photosynthesis, but had little effect on respiration. The high carbon sequestration in 1998 was coincident with one of the strongest El Nino events of this century, and is considered a significant and unexpected benefit.

Massive mortality of aspen following severe drought along the southern edge of the Canadian boreal forest

Drought-induced, regional-scale dieback of forests has emerged as a global concern that is expected to escalate under model projections of climate change. Since 2000, drought of unusual severity, extent, and duration has affected large areas of western North America, leading to regional-scale dieback of forests in the southwestern US. We report on drought impacts on forests in a region farther north, encompassing the transition between boreal forest and prairie in western Canada. A central question is the significance of drought as an agent of large-scale tree mortality and its potential future impact on carbon cycling in this cold region. We used a combination of plot-based, meteorological, and remote sensing measures to map and quantify aboveground, dead biomass of trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) across an 11.5 Mha survey area where drought was exceptionally severe during 2001–2002. Within this area, a satellite-based land cover map showed that aspen-dominated broadleaf forests occupied 2.3 Mha. Aerial surveys revealed extensive patches of severe mortality (>55%) resembling the impacts of fire. Dead aboveground biomass was estimated at 45 Mt, representing 20% of the total aboveground biomass, based on a spatial interpolation of plot-based measurements. Spatial variation in percentage dead biomass showed a moderately strong correlation with drought severity. In the prairie-like, southern half of the study area where the drought was most severe, 35% of aspen biomass was dead, compared with an estimated 7% dead biomass in the absence of drought. Drought led to an estimated 29 Mt increase in dead biomass across the survey area, corresponding to 14 Mt of potential future carbon emissions following decomposition. Many recent, comparable episodes of drought-induced forest dieback have been reported from around the world, which points to an emerging need for multiscale monitoring approaches to quantify drought effects on woody biomass and carbon cycling across large areas.

Potential Carbon Losses From Peat Profiles: Effects of Temperature, Drought Cycles, and Fire

Global warming and the resultant increase in evapotranspiration might lead to lowered water tables in peatlands and an increase in fire frequency. The objective of this study was to investigate some of the potential effects of these changes on peat decomposition. Dry mass losses and emissions of CO2 and CH4 from peat samples taken from three depth layers (0-10, 10-20, and 30-40 cm) of a black spruce peatland were measured in the laboratory at 8°, 16°, and 24°C under two moisture treatments. Effects of deep peat fire on decomposition were also simulated by burning the upper layer (0-10 cm) of peat and adding the ash to peat samples from the 10-20 cm layer. CH4 release averaged <1% of total carbon loss in flooded samples. Release of CO2 was 4-9 times greater from the 0-10 cm layer than from the 30-40 cm layer. After 120 d, the 30-40 cm layer had lost <1% of its original dry mass in all treatments. Higher temperatures strongly promoted decomposition of samples exposed to drying cycles but had little effect on decomposition of continuously flooded samples. Ash addition had variable effects on CO2 emissions but may have promoted CH4 production. It is suggested that in certain situations, global warming may not cause appreciable increases in carbon loss from peat deposits. The results indicate that some deeper peats are resistant to decay even when exposed to warm, aerobic conditions. However, further experimental work is needed to predict the long-term response of peat deposits to changes in water levels in different peatland types.

Temporal scaling of moisture and the forest-grassland boundary in western Canada

Abstract A major challenge in understanding how forests may respond to climate change is that many of the critical processes, such as precipitation patterns and disturbance regimes, are highly variable and operate over a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. Analyses of vegetation-climate relationships have been conducted as a simple scaling technique to identify the most important long-term factors controlling the boundary between boreal forest and grassland in western Canada. In an earlier study, the boundary was found to correspond closely to the zero isoline of a climatic moisture index, based on mean annual precipitation minus potential evapotranspiration (PET) by the Jensen-Haise method. In this study, similar results were obtained using PET estimates from the more process-based Priestley-Taylor equation or a simplified form of the Penman-Monteith equation, although actual PET estimates were sensitive to input parameters. It is concluded, based on this analysis and other evidence, that forest distribution in the region is controlled by chronic moisture deficits. A simple method of estimating PET is presented that is suitable for assessing long-term changes in moisture regimes from limited climate data.

Satellite-based model detection of recent climate-driven changes in northern high-latitude vegetation productivity

[1] We applied a satellite remote sensing based production efficiency model (PEM) using an integrated AVHRR and MODIS FPAR/LAI time series with a regionally corrected NCEP/NCAR reanalysis daily surface meteorology and NASA/GEWEX Surface Radiation Budget shortwave solar radiation inputs to assess annual terrestrial net primary productivity (NPP) for the pan-Arctic basin and Alaska from 1983 to 2005. Our results show that low temperature constraints on Boreal-Arctic NPP are decreasing by 0.43% per year (P < 0.001), whereas a positive trend in vegetation moisture constraints of 0.49% per year (P = 0.04) are offsetting the potential benefits of longer growing seasons and contributing to recent disturbances in NPP. The PEM simulations of NPP seasonality, annual anomalies and trends are similar to stand inventory network measurements of boreal aspen stem growth (r = 0.56; P = 0.007) and atmospheric CO2 measurement based estimates of the timing of growing season onset (r = 0.78; P < 0.001). Our results indicate that summer drought led to marked NPP decreases in much of the boreal forest region after the late-1990s. However, seasonal low temperatures are still a dominant limitation on regional NPP. Despite recent drought events, mean annual NPP for the pan-Arctic region showed a positive growth trend of 0.34% per year (20.27 TgC/a; P = 0.002) from 1983 to 2005. Drought induced NPP decreases may become more frequent and widespread as regional ecosystems adjust to a warmer, drier atmosphere, though the occurrence and severity of drought events will depend on future patterns of plant-available moisture.

No growth stimulation of Canada’s boreal forest under half-century of combined warming and CO2 fertilization

Significance Limited knowledge about the mechanistic drivers of forest growth and responses to environmental changes creates uncertainties about the future role of circumpolar boreal forests in the global carbon cycle. Here, we use newly acquired tree-ring data from Canada’s National Forest Inventory to determine the growth response of the boreal forest to environmental changes. We find no consistent boreal-wide growth response over the past 60 y across Canada. However, some southwestern and southeastern forests experienced a growth enhancement, and some regions such as the northwestern and maritime areas experienced a growth depression. Growth–climate relationships bring evidence of an intensification of the impacts of hydroclimatic variability on growth late in the 20th century, in parallel with the rapid rise of summer temperature. Considerable evidence exists that current global temperatures are higher than at any time during the past millennium. However, the long-term impacts of rising temperatures and associated shifts in the hydrological cycle on the productivity of ecosystems remain poorly understood for mid to high northern latitudes. Here, we quantify species-specific spatiotemporal variability in terrestrial aboveground biomass stem growth across Canada’s boreal forests from 1950 to the present. We use 873 newly developed tree-ring chronologies from Canada’s National Forest Inventory, representing an unprecedented degree of sampling standardization for a large-scale dendrochronological study. We find significant regional- and species-related trends in growth, but the positive and negative trends compensate each other to yield no strong overall trend in forest growth when averaged across the Canadian boreal forest. The spatial patterns of growth trends identified in our analysis were to some extent coherent with trends estimated by remote sensing, but there are wide areas where remote-sensing information did not match the forest growth trends. Quantifications of tree growth variability as a function of climate factors and atmospheric CO2 concentration reveal strong negative temperature and positive moisture controls on spatial patterns of tree growth rates, emphasizing the ecological sensitivity to regime shifts in the hydrological cycle. An enhanced dependence of forest growth on soil moisture during the late-20th century coincides with a rapid rise in summer temperatures and occurs despite potential compensating effects from increased atmospheric CO2 concentration.

Simulation of interannual responses of trembling aspen stands to climatic variation and insect defoliation in western Canada

Abstract A carbon-based model has been developed to simulate responses of trembling aspen ( Populus tremuloides Michx.) stands to interannual climatic variation and insect defoliation. The model is designed for medium time scale (10–100 years) simulations and requires only daily maximum and minimum temperature and precipitation as meteorological inputs. The modelling approach is similar to FOREST-BGC but includes additional processes known to be important in deciduous forests. These include removal of leaf area during outbreaks of forest tent caterpillar ( Malacosoma disstria Hbn.), phenological changes in leaf area index, storage and allocation of non-structural carbohydrate and the contribution of understorey vegetation to evapotranspiration. The model was used for simulations of growth and mortality of biomass carbon in two mature aspen forests located in the climatically dry transition zone between the boreal forest and prairie grassland regions of Saskatchewan, Canada. Model inputs of annual defoliation intensity were based on historic records of insect defoliation and the incidence of light-coloured tree rings in disks or cores collected from aspen at each of the two sites. At both sites, moderately good correlations ( r 2 =0.47–0.54) were obtained between modelled interannual changes in stem carbon growth and observed interannual changes in stem basal area increment obtained from tree-ring analysis. Model outputs of stem biomass carbon were found to be highly sensitive to parameters describing seasonal leaf area duration, insect defoliation intensity, photosynthesis and root respiration and carbohydrate allocation to growth versus storage.

Negative impacts of high temperatures on growth of black spruce forests intensify with the anticipated climate warming

An increasing number of studies conclude that water limitations and heat stress may hinder the capacity of black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) trees, a dominant species of Canadas boreal forests, to grow and assimilate atmospheric carbon. However, there is currently no scientific consensus on the future of these forests over the next century in the context of widespread climate warming. The large spatial extent of black spruce forests across the Canadian boreal forest and associated variability in climate, demography, and site conditions pose challenges for projecting future climate change responses. Here we provide an evaluation of the impacts of climate warming and drying, as well as increasing [CO2 ], on the aboveground productivity of black spruce forests across Canada south of 60°N for the period 1971 to 2100. We use a new extensive network of tree-ring data obtained from Canadas National Forest Inventory, spatially explicit simulations of net primary productivity (NPP) and its drivers, and multivariate statistical modeling. We found that soil water availability is a significant driver of black spruce interannual variability in productivity across broad areas of the western to eastern Canadian boreal forest. Interannual variability in productivity was also found to be driven by autotrophic respiration in the warmest regions. In most regions, the impacts of soil water availability and respiration on interannual variability in productivity occurred during the phase of carbohydrate accumulation the year preceding tree-ring formation. Results from projections suggest an increase in the importance of soil water availability and respiration as limiting factors on NPP over the next century due to warming, but this response may vary to the extent that other factors such as carbon dioxide fertilization, and respiration acclimation to high temperature, contribute to dampening these limitations.

The Contribution of Typha Components to Floating Mat Buoyancy

The seasonal contribution of living Typha components to the buoyancy of floating mats was investigated in a diked, freshwater impoundment near the head of the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick, Canada. The objectives were (1) to examine the potential influence of a dominant, mat—building species on hydrologic conditions at the mat surface, and (2) to predict whether a complete killing of the dominant species could cause mats to sink. The Typha component contributing most to mat buoyancy was the rhizomes, which added a net buoyancy pressure of °20 Pa throughout the growing season. The seasonal maximum buoyancy contribution of 28 Pa for all living Typha components combined was reached in spring, followed by a decline to 11 Pa in late summer as the aboveground shoots developed. This positive and seasonally variable contribution of Typha to mat buoyancy is expected to be most important during the early stages of mat development, when mats are thin and composed largely of living, belowground organs. However, on older and thicker mats the living Typha is less important because of the large volumes of gas bubbles from anaerobic decomposition that are trapped in the dead organic material. For the 50 cm thick floating mats under study, it is concluded that trapped gas is the main cause of buoyancy and would lead to the continued flotation of mats even if the living Typha were removed. Implications of the results are discussed in relation to the resiliency of floating mat systems.

Seasonal change in gas content and buoyancy of floating Typha mats

(1) In an embanked, freshwater marsh in New Brunswick, Canada, the buoyancy of experimentally isolated Typha fioating mats and release rate of gas bubbles were monitored. Mats were most buoyant and released the greatest quantity of gas in late summer when water temperature in the mat was highest. (2) Nitrogen and methane were the major components of gas bubbles trapped in the organic material in August, but the percentage of methane was relatively lower in May. (3) In a laboratory experiment, Typha mat samples were incubated in growth chambers at 2, 8, 15 or 22 ?C for twelve weeks, and were then held at 2 ?C for thirteen weeks and 15 ?C for ten weeks to simulate winter and summer temperatures, respectively, in floating mats. Samples incubated at 22 ?C reached an equilibrium gas content of 13 7% of total mat volume, while samples at 2 ?C attained a gas content of 6 2%. The magnitude of seasonal change in gas content was estimated at between 2 5 and 4 7% of total mat volume. (4) Seasonal, temperature-dependent change in the rate of anaerobic decomposition is partly responsible for the observed seasonal variation in the gas content and buoyancy of mats, but physical processes such as changes in gas solubility with temperature are also important. The significance of anaerobic decomposition as a biotic factor influencing successional development is discussed.