1. Where does the carbon go? Long-term effects of forest management on the carbon budget of a temperate-forest water-supply watershed.
- Author
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Foster, David E., Duinker, Peter N., Jamieson, Rob C., Keys, Kevin, and Steenberg, James W.N.
- Subjects
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FOREST management , *WATER supply , *BUDGET management , *TEMPERATE forests , *DISSOLVED organic matter , *FOREST litter - Abstract
While forest management commonly seeks to increase carbon (C) capture and sequestration, in some settings, a high density of C storage may be detrimental to other land uses and ecosystem services. We study a forested, drinking-water-supply watershed to determine the effects of forest management on C storage with the implicit understanding that greater storage of C will lead to increased quantity of carbon exported hydrologically into a source-water reservoir. Using a custom implementation of CBM-CFS3, a Canadian model to simulate C transformations and movement in forested systems, and a custom forest disturbance and management model, we simulate various management scenarios and their C outcomes. The largest forest C pool, mineral soils, is very slow to change and manipulating DOC export through this pool would likely not be feasible within human management timescales. Other pools, in which C has lower residence time and from which C is more readily mobilized, are a more promising area for future research into hydrologic DOC export under varying management regimes. Our findings indicate that management activities can serve to reduce forest C storage, but further research is required to connect these outcomes to hydrologic export. • Forest-derived dissolved organic carbon (DOC) challenges water treatment processes. • Changing forest management may proactively reduce DOC and aid treatment. • Changes in forest management result in slow changes to soil carbon (C) storage. • Measures to protect environmental metrics may increase C loading in source waters. • Forest litter and other fast-decaying C pools are a likely source of exported C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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