Decay of aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) wood in moist and dry boreal, temperate, and tropical forest fragments

Abstract

In this study, we set up a wood decomposition experiment to i) quantify the percent of mass remaining, decay constant and performance strength of aspen stakes (Populus tremuloides) in dry and moist boreal (Alaska and Minnesota, USA), temperate (Washington and Idaho, USA), and tropical (Puerto Rico) forest types, and ii) determine the effects of fragmentation on wood decomposition rates as related to fragment size, forest age (and/ or structure) and climate at the macro- and meso-scales. Fragment sizes represented the landscape variability within a climatic region. Overall, the mean small fragments area ranged from 10-14 ha, medium-sized fragments 33 to 60 ha, and large fragments 100-240 ha. We found that: i) aspen stakes decayed fastest in the tropical sites, and the slowest in the temperate forest fragments, ii) the percent of mass remaining was significantly greater in dry than in moist forests in boreal and temperate fragments, while the opposite was true for the tropical forest fragments, iii) no effect of fragment size on the percent of mass remaining of aspen stakes in the boreal sites, temperate dry, and tropical moist forests, and iv) no significant differences of aspen wood decay between forest edges and interior forest in boreal, temperate and tropical fragments.

Citation

Gonzalez, Grizelle; Gould, William A.; Hudak, Andrew T.; Hollingsworth, Teresa Nettleton. 2008. Decay of aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) wood in moist and dry boreal, temperate, and tropical forest fragments. Ambio. 37(7-8): 588-597.