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Abstract: Forest harvest and subsequent stand development can have major effects on the carbon cycle of boreal stands. Carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes of a three-point black spruce harvest chronosequence located in the boreal forest of eastern North America were measured over a one-year period at the ecosystem scale with the eddy covariance technique and CO2 efflux from soils was measured with a portable infrared gas analyzer. The three sites (pre-harvest, recently harvested, and juvenile) were 105-, 8- and 33-years old, respectively. On an annual basis, the pre-harvest site (EOBS) was a weak carbon sink (6±4gCm−2 yr−1), the recently harvested site (HBS00) a source (−87±3gCm−2 yr−1) and the juvenile site (HBS75) a moderate to strong sink (143±35gCm−2 yr−1). Annual gross ecosystem production (GEP) at the pre-harvest site was only 28% greater than at the recently harvested site (646±6 versus 504±5gCm−2 yr−1), while GEP at the juvenile site (1107±32gCm−2 yr−1) was more than double that at the recently harvested site, suggesting significant physiological constraints to photosynthesis at the pre-harvest site. Annual ecosystem respiration (R e) followed the same pattern, but intersite differences were somewhat less (640±8 to 591±6 to 964±50gCm−2 yr−1). Annual soil respiration (R s) decreased following harvest from 593 to 500gCm−2 yr−1 and increased with further stand development to 644gCm−2 yr−1, although the changes were less than for GEP and R e. Q 10 and R 10 of R s for the snow-free period varied between sites, were lowest for the recently harvested site, and appeared to be related to GEP via substrate supply. The annual ratio of R s to R e was lower for the juvenile site (67%) than for the pre-harvest and recently harvested sites (93 and 85%, respectively). These results quantify how some of the major physiological processes that influence the carbon cycle of boreal black spruce stands evolve following harvest and should be useful for better incorporating stand-age effects into regional and global scale models. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Carbon (C) cycling in the boreal forest is driven by both natural and human disturbances, but there is little information on the impact of forest management practices on ecosystem-level C balance. We evaluated the C balance of a recently harvested boreal site in eastern Canada by measuring CO2 fluxes with the eddy covariance technique for 1 year before the application of a scarification treatment (mechanical site preparation) and for 1 year after the treatment was applied to approximately 40% of the study area. Net annual exchange indicated a source of 111gCm−2 year−1 before scarification that increased to 175gCm−2 year−1 after treatment. Annual gross ecosystem productivity (GEP) and net C flux varied between years, but there was no significant difference for ecosystem respiration. Since the differences in climate between years did not explain the changes in the site C balance and daytime net C sequestration under non-limiting environmental conditions was generally lower after the treatment, the large difference in C emissions was most likely due to decreased GEP resulting from the destruction of approximately 60% of the living aboveground vegetation within the scarified areas. Although daily NEP was almost always negative throughout the year, a net daily C sink was observed during a 2-week period in late summer 2003 when air temperatures were approximately 8°C cooler than preceding weeks. An analysis of the residuals from light–response regressions showed that soil water content and vapor pressure deficit were the second most important variables explaining morning and afternoon net C flux in 2003 and 2004, respectively. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Forest harvest is a major disturbance in the boreal forest of eastern North America and should significantly impact biosphere–atmosphere interactions at the regional scale. During a cooler, wetter year (2004) and a warmer, drier year (2005), we compared carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes over a mature black spruce stand (EOBS) with a site that was harvested in 2000 (HBS00) and that had similar soil parent material, site fertility, climate, and pre-harvest species composition. During the study period, EOBS was C neutral (0–6gCm−2 year−1), while HBS00 was a fairly strong C source (119–167gCm−2 year−1). Averaged over both years, gross ecosystem productivity (GEP) was 101% higher at EOBS compared to HBS00 (636gCm−2 year−1 versus 316gCm−2 year−1), while ecosystem respiration (R) was 37% higher at EOBS (633gCm−2 year−1 versus 462gCm−2 year−1). The mean between-site difference in annual NEP was six times greater than was the mean between-year difference, thus suggesting that the C budget of boreal black spruce forests is much more affected by developmental stage (i.e., stand age) than by between-year climate variability. Relative to the mature site, the harvested site had a more dynamic structure due to plant regrowth that induced greater between- and within-year variability in the response of GEP and R to environmental conditions over the 2-year study period. For example, maximum photosynthetic capacity was stable between years at EOBS (12.5μmolm−2 s−1), whereas it increased from 4.7 to 7.3μmolm−2 s−1 from 2004 to 2005 at HBS00. The photosynthetically active growing season started about a week later and finished a week earlier at HBS00 relative to EOBS. The earlier snowmelt at the harvested site did not promote an earlier start of the growing season at this site compared to the mature site. Although environmental conditions in spring have a significant influence on the annual C budget of mature sites, this does not seem to be the case for disturbed sites where mid-summer conditions are more important to the annual C balance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The effects of climatic factors and vegetation type on evapotranspiration (E) and water use efficiency (WUE) were analyzed using tower-based eddy-covariance (EC) data for nine mature forest sites, two peatland sites and one grassland site across an east–west continental-scale transect in Canada during the period 2003–2006. The seasonal pattern of E was closely linked to growing-season length and rainfall distribution. Although annual precipitation (P) during the observation period was highly variable among sites (250−1450mm), minimum annual E was not less than 200mm and was limited to 400−500mm where annual P exceeded 700mm. Site-specific interannual variability in E could be explained by either changes in total P or variations in solar irradiance. A highly positive linear correlation was found between monthly mean values of E and net radiation (R n ) at the grassland site (AB-GRL), the two peatland sites (AB-WPL and ON-EPL), and only one of the forest sites (coastal Douglas-fir, BC-DF49) whereas a hysteretic relationship at the other forest sites indicated that E lagged behind the typical seasonal progression of R n . Results of a cross-correlation analysis between daily (24-h) E and R n revealed that site-specific lag times were between 10 and 40 days depending on the lag of vapour pressure deficit (D) behind R n and the decoupling coefficient, Ω. There was significant seasonal variation in daytime mean dry-foliage Priestley–Taylor α with maxima occurring in the growing season at all sites except BC-DF49 where it was relatively constant (∼0.55) throughout all years. Annual means of daytime dry-foliage α mostly ranging between 0.5 and 0.7 implied stomatal limitation to transpiration. Increasing D significantly decreased canopy conductance (g c ) at the forest sites but had little effect at the peatland and grassland sites, while variation in soil water content caused only minor changes in g c . At all sites, a strong linear correlation between monthly mean values of gross primary production (GPP) and E resulted in water use efficiency being relatively constant. While at most sites, WUE was in the range of 2.6–3.6gCkg−1 H2O, the BC-DF49 site had the highest WUE of the twelve sites with values near 6.0gCkg−1 H2O. Of the two peatland sites, AB-WPL, a western treed fen, had a significantly higher WUE (∼3.0gCkg−1 H2O) than ON-EPL, an eastern ombrotrophic bog (∼1.8gCkg−1 H2O), which was related to peatland productivity and plant functional type. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]