Understanding the controls on soil carbon dynamics is crucial for modeling responses of ecosystem carbon balance to global change, yet few studies provide explicit knowledge on the direct and indirect effects of forest stands on soil carbon via microbial processes. We investigated tree species, soil, and site factors in relation to soil carbon density and mineralization in a temperate forest of...

15 J-FOR Journal of Science & Technology for Forest Products and Processes: VOL.1, NO.2, 2011 Agent-based technology and its applications in multi-agent systems are a set of tools used in many sectors, including manufacturing, services, logistics, and health care, to model and study the dynamics, resilience, and self-organization of complex systems, as well as to design prescriptive decision su...

Understanding forest carbon cycling responses to atmospheric N deposition is critical to evaluating ecosystem N dynamics. The natural abundance of N (dN) has been suggested as an efficient and non-invasive tool to monitor N pools and fluxes. In this study, three successional forests in southern China were treated with four levels of N addition. In each treatment, we measured rates of soil N min...

Nitrogen (N) availability plays multiple roles in the boreal landscape, as a limiting nutrient to forest growth, determinant of terrestrial biodiversity, and agent of eutrophication in aquatic ecosystems. We review existing research on forest N dynamics in northern landscapes and address the effects of management and environmental change on internal cycling and export. Current research foci inc...

While ecological succession shapes contemporary forest structure and dynamics, other factors like forest structure (dense vs. sparse canopies) and climate may alter structural trajectories. To assess potential sources of variation in structural trajectories, we examined proportional biomass change for a regionally dominant tree species, Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco), across...

Studies of responses of forest vegetation to steadily increasing atmospheric concentrations of CO2 have focussed strongly on the potential of trees to absorb extra carbon; the effects of elevated [CO2] on plant–soil water relations via decreased stomatal conductance and increased ambient temperature have received less attention, but may be significant in the long term at the ecosystem level. CO...