Geology topics

John B. Bradford

Publications and source records attributed to John B. Bradford.

176 records · Page 10Linked to original sources

USGS2013

Woody debris volume depletion through decay: implications for biomass and carbon accounting

Woody debris decay rates have recently received much attention because of the need to quantify temporal changes in forest carbon stocks. Published decay rates, available for many species, are commonly used to characterize deadwood biomass and carbon depletion. However, decay rates are often derived from reductions in wood density through time, which when used to model biomass and carbon depletion are known to underestimate rate loss because they fail to account for volume reduction (changes in log shape) as decay progresses. We present a method for estimating changes in log volume through time and illustrate the method using a chronosequence approach. The method is based on the observation, confirmed herein, that decaying logs have a collapse ratio (cross-sectional height/width) that can serve as a surrogate for the volume remaining. Combining the resulting volume loss with concurrent changes in wood density from the same logs then allowed us to quantify biomass and carbon depletion for three study species. Results show that volume, density, and biomass follow distinct depletion curves during decomposition. Volume showed an initial lag period (log dimensions remained unchanged), even while wood density was being reduced. However, once volume depletion began, biomass loss (the product of density and volume depletion) occurred much more rapidly than density alone. At the temporal limit of our data, the proportion of the biomass remaining was roughly half that of the density remaining. Accounting for log volume depletion, as demonstrated in this study, provides a comprehensive characterization of deadwood decomposition, thereby improving biomass-loss and carbon-accounting models.

Minnesota↗

USGS2013

Impacts of post-harvest slash and live-tree retention on biomass and nutrient stocks in Populus tremuloides Michx.-dominated forests, northern Minnesota, USA

Globally, there is widespread interest in using forest-derived biomass as a source of bioenergy. While conventional timber harvesting generally removes only merchantable tree boles, harvesting biomass feedstock can remove all forms of woody biomass (i.e., live and dead standing woody vegetation, downed woody debris, and stumps) resulting in a greater loss of biomass and nutrients as well as more severe habitat alteration. To investigate the potential impacts of this practice, this study examined the initial impacts (pre- and post-harvest) of various levels of slash and live-tree retention on biomass and nutrient stocks, including carbon (C), nitrogen (N), calcium (Ca), potassium (K), and phosphorus (P), in Populus tremuloides Michx.-dominated forests of northern Minnesota, USA. Treatments examined included three levels of slash retention, whole-tree harvest (WTH), 20% slash retention (20SR), and stem-only harvest (SOH), factored with three levels of green-tree retention, no trees retained (NONE), dispersed retention (DISP), and aggregate retention (AGR). Slash retention was the primary factor affecting post-harvest biomass and nutrient stocks, including woody debris pools. Compared to the unharvested control, stocks of biomass, carbon, and nutrients, including N, Ca, K, and P, in woody debris were higher in all treatments. Stem-only harvests typically contained greater biomass and nutrient stocks than WTH, although biomass and nutrients within 20SR, a level recommended by biomass harvesting guidelines in the US and worldwide, generally did not differ from WTH or SOH. Biomass in smaller-diameter slash material (typically 2.5-22.5 cm in diameter) dominated the woody debris pool following harvest regardless of slash retention level. Trends among treatments in this diameter range were generally similar to those in the total woody debris pool. Specifically, SOH contained significantly greater amounts of biomass than WTH while 20SR was not different from either WTH or SOH. Within P. tremuloides systems, we observed high stocks of smaller diameter slash material for all prescribed slash retention treatments. Most notably, WTH retains much more material than anticipated, up to 50% of available slash. These results reflect the high levels of breakage during winter harvest operations in these stands and, consequently, warrant consideration when anticipating the impacts of biomass harvesting on woody debris pools. Further investigation is necessary to understand how deliberate slash retention levels and season-of-harvest impact woody debris in other forest systems.

Minnesota↗

USGS2013

Structure and development of old-growth, unmanaged second-growth, and extended rotation Pinus resinosa forests in Minnesota, USA

The structure and developmental dynamics of old-growth forests often serve as important baselines for restoration prescriptions aimed at promoting more complex structural conditions in managed forest landscapes. Nonetheless, long-term information on natural patterns of development is rare for many commercially important and ecologically widespread forest types. Moreover, the effectiveness of approaches recommended for restoring old-growth structural conditions to managed forests, such as the application of extended rotation forestry, has been little studied. This study uses several long-term datasets from old growth, extended rotation, and unmanaged second growth Pinus resinosa (red pine) forests in northern Minnesota, USA, to quantify the range of variation in structural conditions for this forest type and to evaluate the effectiveness of extended rotation forestry at promoting the development of late-successional structural conditions. Long-term tree population data from permanent plots for one of the old-growth stands and the extended rotation stands (87 and 61 years, respectively) also allowed for an examination of the long-term structural dynamics of these systems. Old-growth forests were more structurally complex than unmanaged second-growth and extended rotation red pine stands, due in large part to the significantly higher volumes of coarse woody debris (70.7 vs. 11.5 and 4.7 m 3 /ha, respectively) and higher snag basal area (6.9 vs. 2.9 and 0.5 m 2 /ha, respectively). In addition, old-growth forests, although red pine-dominated, contained a greater abundance of other species, including Pinus strobus , Abies balsamea , and Picea glauca relative to the other stand types examined. These differences between stand types largely reflect historic gap-scale disturbances within the old-growth systems and their corresponding structural and compositional legacies. Nonetheless, extended rotation thinning treatments, by accelerating advancement to larger tree diameter classes, generated diameter distributions more closely approximating those found in old growth within a shorter time frame than depicted in long-term examinations of old-growth structural development. These results suggest that extended rotation treatments may accelerate the development of old-growth structural characteristics, provided that coarse woody debris and snags are deliberately retained and created on site. These and other developmental characteristics of old-growth systems can inform forest management when objectives include the restoration of structural conditions found in late-successional forests.

Minnesota↗

USGS2013

Strategies for minimizing sample size for use in airborne LiDAR-based forest inventory

Recently airborne Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) has emerged as a highly accurate remote sensing modality to be used in operational scale forest inventories. Inventories conducted with the help of LiDAR are most often model-based, i.e. they use variables derived from LiDAR point clouds as the predictive variables that are to be calibrated using field plots. The measurement of the necessary field plots is a time-consuming and statistically sensitive process. Because of this, current practice often presumes hundreds of plots to be collected. But since these plots are only used to calibrate regression models, it should be possible to minimize the number of plots needed by carefully selecting the plots to be measured. In the current study, we compare several systematic and random methods for calibration plot selection, with the specific aim that they be used in LiDAR based regression models for forest parameters, especially above-ground biomass. The primary criteria compared are based on both spatial representativity as well as on their coverage of the variability of the forest features measured. In the former case, it is important also to take into account spatial auto-correlation between the plots. The results indicate that choosing the plots in a way that ensures ample coverage of both spatial and feature space variability improves the performance of the corresponding models, and that adequate coverage of the variability in the feature space is the most important condition that should be met by the set of plots collected.

Forest Ecology and Management↗

USGS2013

Potential increases in natural disturbance rates could offset forest management impacts on ecosystem carbon stocks

Forested ecosystems contain the majority of the world’s terrestrial carbon, and forest management has implications for regional and global carbon cycling. Carbon stored in forests changes with stand age and is affected by natural disturbance and timber harvesting. We examined how harvesting and disturbance interact to influence forest carbon stocks over the Superior National Forest, in northern Minnesota. Forest inventory data from the USDA Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis program were used to characterize current forest age structure and quantify the relationship between age and carbon stocks for eight forest types. Using these findings, we simulated the impact of alternative management scenarios and natural disturbance rates on forest-wide terrestrial carbon stocks over a 100-year horizon. Under low natural mortality, forest-wide total ecosystem carbon stocks increased when 0% or 40% of planned harvests were implemented; however, the majority of forest-wide carbon stocks decreased with greater harvest levels and elevated disturbance rates. Our results suggest that natural disturbance has the potential to exert stronger influence on forest carbon stocks than timber harvesting activities and that maintaining carbon stocks over the long-term may prove difficult if disturbance frequency increases in response to climate change.

Minnesota↗

USGS2013

Hierarchical Bayesian spatial models for predicting multiple forest variables using waveform LiDAR, hyperspectral imagery, and large inventory datasets

In this paper we detail a multivariate spatial regression model that couples LiDAR, hyperspectral and forest inventory data to predict forest outcome variables at a high spatial resolution. The proposed model is used to analyze forest inventory data collected on the US Forest Service Penobscot Experimental Forest (PEF), ME, USA. In addition to helping meet the regression model's assumptions, results from the PEF analysis suggest that the addition of multivariate spatial random effects improves model fit and predictive ability, compared with two commonly applied modeling approaches. This improvement results from explicitly modeling the covariation among forest outcome variables and spatial dependence among observations through the random effects. Direct application of such multivariate models to even moderately large datasets is often computationally infeasible because of cubic order matrix algorithms involved in estimation. We apply a spatial dimension reduction technique to help overcome this computational hurdle without sacrificing richness in modeling.

Maine↗

USGS2013

Potential climate change impacts on temperate forest ecosystem processes

Large changes in atmospheric CO2, temperature and precipitation are predicted by 2100, yet the long-term consequences for carbon, water, and nitrogen cycling in forests are poorly understood. We applied the PnET-CN ecosystem model to compare the long-term effects of changing climate and atmospheric CO2 on productivity, evapotranspiration, runoff, and net nitrogen mineralization in current Great Lakes forest types. We used two statistically downscaled climate projections, PCM B1 (warmer and wetter) and GFDL A1FI (hotter and drier), to represent two potential future climate and atmospheric CO2 scenarios. To separate the effects of climate and CO2, we ran PnET-CN including and excluding the CO2 routine. Our results suggest that, with rising CO2 and without changes in forest type, average regional productivity could increase from 67% to 142%, changes in evapotranspiration could range from –3% to +6%, runoff could increase from 2% to 22%, and net N mineralization could increase 10% to 12%. Ecosystem responses varied geographically and by forest type. Increased productivity was almost entirely driven by CO2 fertilization effects, rather than by temperature or precipitation (model runs holding CO2 constant showed stable or declining productivity). The relative importance of edaphic and climatic spatial drivers of productivity varied over time, suggesting that productivity in Great Lakes forests may switch from being temperature to water limited by the end of the century.

Michigan;Minnesota;Wisconsin↗

USGS2013

Thinning increases climatic resilience of red pine

Forest management techniques such as intermediate stand-tending practices (e.g., thinning) can promote climatic resiliency in forest stands by moderating tree competition. Residual trees gain increased access to environmental resources (i.e., soil moisture, light), which in turn has the potential to buffer trees from stressful climatic conditions. The influences of climate (temperature and precipitation) and forest management (thinning method and intensity) on the productivity of red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.) in Michigan were examined to assess whether repeated thinning treatments were able to increase climatic resiliency (i.e., maintaining productivity and reduced sensitivity to climatic stress). The cumulative productivity of each thinning treatment was determined, and it was found that thinning from below to a residual basal area of 14 m 2 ·ha −1 produced the largest average tree size but also the second lowest overall biomass per acre. On the other hand, the uncut control and the thinning from above to a residual basal area of 28 m 2 ·ha −1 produced the smallest average tree size but also the greatest overall biomass per acre. Dendrochronological methods were used to quantify sensitivity of annual radial growth to monthly and seasonal climatic factors for each thinning treatment type. Climatic sensitivity was influenced by thinning method (i.e., thinning from below decreased sensitivity to climatic stress more than thinning from above) and by thinning intensity (i.e., more intense thinning led to a lower climatic sensitivity). Overall, thinning from below to a residual basal area of 21 m 2 ·ha −1 represented a potentially beneficial compromise to maximize tree size, biomass per acre, and reduced sensitivity to climatic stress, and, thus, the highest level of climatic resilience.

Michigan↗

USGS2013

Effects of thinning on drought vulnerability and climate response in north temperate forest ecosystems

Reducing tree densities through silvicultural thinning has been widely advocated as a strategy for enhancing resistance and resilience to drought, yet few empirical evaluations of this approach exist. We examined detailed dendrochronological data from a long-term (>50 yrs) replicated thinning experiment to determine if density reductions conferred greater resistance and/or resilience to droughts, assessed by the magnitude of stand-level growth reductions. Our results suggest that thinning generally enhanced drought resistance and resilience; however, this relationship showed a pronounced reversal over time in stands maintained at lower tree densities. Specifically, lower-density stands exhibited greater resistance and resilience at younger ages (49 years), yet exhibited lower resistance and resilience at older ages (76 years), relative to higher-density stands. We attribute this reversal to significantly greater tree sizes attained within the lower-density stands through stand development, which in turn increased tree-level water demand during the later droughts. Results from response-function analyses indicate that thinning altered growth-climate relationships, such that higher-density stands were more sensitive to growing-season precipitation relative to lower-density stands. These results confirm the potential of density management to moderate drought impacts on growth, and they highlight the importance of accounting for stand structure when predicting climate-change impacts to forest systems.

Minnesota↗

USGS2013

Ecological impacts of energy-wood harvests: Lessons from whole-tree harvesting and natural disturbance

Recent interest in using forest residues and small-diameter material for biofuels is generating a renewed focus on harvesting impacts and forest sustainability. The rich legacy of research from whole-tree harvesting studies can be examined in light of this interest. Although this research largely focused on consequences for forest productivity, in particular carbon and nutrient pools, it also has relevance for examining potential consequences for biodiversity and aquatic ecosystems. This review is framed within a context of contrasting ecosystem impacts from whole-tree harvesting because it represents a high level of biomass removal. Although whole-tree harvesting does not fully use the nonmerchantable biomass available, it indicates the likely direction and magnitude of impacts that can occur through energy-wood harvesting compared with less-intensive conventional harvesting and to dynamics associated with various natural disturbances. The intent of this comparison is to gauge the degree of departure of energy-wood harvesting from less intensive conventional harvesting. The review of the literature found a gradient of increasing departure in residual structural conditions that remained in the forest when conventional and whole-tree harvesting was compared with stand-replacing natural disturbance. Important stand- and landscape-level processes were related to these structural conditions. The consequence of this departure may be especially potent because future energy-wood harvests may more completely use a greater range of forest biomass at potentially shortened rotations, creating a great need for research that explores the largely unknown scale of disturbance that may apply to our forest ecosystems.

Journal of Forestry↗

USGS2012

Influence of disturbance on temperate forest productivity

Climate, tree species traits, and soil fertility are key controls on forest productivity. However, in most forest ecosystems, natural and human disturbances, such as wind throw, fire, and harvest, can also exert important and lasting direct and indirect influence over productivity. We used an ecosystem model, PnET-CN, to examine how disturbance type, intensity, and frequency influence net primary production (NPP) across a range of forest types from Minnesota and Wisconsin, USA. We assessed the importance of past disturbances on NPP, net N mineralization, foliar N, and leaf area index at 107 forest stands of differing types (aspen, jack pine, northern hardwood, black spruce) and disturbance history (fire, harvest) by comparing model simulations with observations. The model reasonably predicted differences among forest types in productivity, foliar N, leaf area index, and net N mineralization. Model simulations that included past disturbances minimally improved predictions compared to simulations without disturbance, suggesting the legacy of past disturbances played a minor role in influencing current forest productivity rates. Modeled NPP was more sensitive to the intensity of soil removal during a disturbance than the fraction of stand mortality or wood removal. Increasing crown fire frequency resulted in lower NPP, particularly for conifer forest types with longer leaf life spans and longer recovery times. These findings suggest that, over long time periods, moderate frequency disturbances are a relatively less important control on productivity than climate, soil, and species traits.

Ecosystems↗

USGS2012

Consequences of declining snow accumulation for water balance of mid-latitude dry regions

Widespread documentation of positive winter temperature anomalies, declining snowpack and earlier snow melt in the Northern Hemisphere have raised concerns about the consequences for regional water resources as well as wildfire. A topic that has not been addressed with respect to declining snowpack is effects on ecosystem water balance. Changes in water balance dynamics will be particularly pronounced at low elevations of mid-latitude dry regions because these areas will be the first to be affected by declining snow as a result of rising temperatures. As a model system, we used simulation experiments to investigate big sagebrush ecosystems that dominate a large fraction of the semiarid western United States. Our results suggest that effects on future ecosystem water balance will increase along a climatic gradient from dry, warm and snow-poor to wet, cold and snow-rich. Beyond a threshold within this climatic gradient, predicted consequences for vegetation switched from no change to increasing transpiration. Responses were sensitive to uncertainties in climatic prediction; particularly, a shift of precipitation to the colder season could reduce impacts of a warmer and snow-poorer future, depending on the degree to which ecosystem phenology tracks precipitation changes. Our results suggest that big sagebrush and other similar semiarid ecosystems could decrease in viability or disappear in dry to medium areas and likely increase only in the snow-richest areas, i.e. higher elevations and higher latitudes. Unlike cold locations at high elevations or in the arctic, ecosystems at low elevations respond in a different and complex way to future conditions because of opposing effects of increasing water-limitation and a longer snow-free season. Outcomes of such nonlinear interactions for future ecosystems will likely include changes in plant composition and productivity, dynamics of water balance, and availability of water resources.

Global Change Biology↗

USGS2012

Carbon stocks across a chronosequence of thinned and unmanaged red pine ( Pinus resinosa ) stands

Forests function as a major global C sink, and forest management strategies that maximize C stocks offer one possible means of mitigating the impacts of increasing anthropogenic CO 2 emissions. We studied the effects of thinning, a common management technique in many forest types, on age-related trends in C stocks using a chronosequence of thinned and unmanaged red pine ( Pinus resinosa ) stands ranging from 9 to 306 years old. Live tree C stocks increased with age to a maximum near the middle of the chronosequence in unmanaged stands, and increased across the entire chronosequence in thinned stands. C in live understory vegetation and C in the mineral soil each declined rapidly with age in young stands but changed relatively little in middle-aged to older stands regardless of management. Forest floor C stocks increased with age in unmanaged stands, but forest floor C decreased with age after the onset of thinning around age 40 in thinned stands. Deadwood C was highly variable, but decreased with age in thinned stands. Total ecosystem C increased with stand age until approaching an asymptote around age 150. The increase in total ecosystem C was paralleled by an age-related increase in total aboveground C, but relatively little change in total belowground C. Thinning had surprisingly little impact on total ecosystem C stocks, but it did modestly alter age-related trends in total ecosystem C allocation between aboveground and belowground pools. In addition to characterizing the subtle differences in C dynamics between thinned and unmanaged stands, these results suggest that C accrual in red pine stands continues well beyond the 60–100 year management rotations typical for this system. Management plans that incorporate longer rotations and thinning in some stands could play an important role in maximizing C stocks in red pine forests while meeting other objectives including timber extraction, biodiversity conservation, restoration, and fuel reduction goals.

Ecological Applications↗

USGS2012

Recreational trails as corridors for alien plants in the Rocky Mountains, USA

Alien plant species often use areas of heavy human activity for habitat and dispersal. Roads and utility corridors have been shown to harbor more alien species than the surrounding vegetation and are therefore believed to contribute to alien plant persistence and spread. Recreational trails represent another corridor that could harbor alien species and aid their spread. Effective management of invasive species requires understanding how alien plants are distributed at trailheads and trails and how their dispersal may be influenced by native vegetation. Our overall goal was to investigate the distribution of alien plants at trailheads and trails in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. At trailheads, we found that although the number of alien species was less than the number of native species, alien plant cover ( x̄=50%) did not differ from native plant cover, and we observed a large number of alien seedlings in the soil seed bank, suggesting that alien plants are a large component of trailhead communities and will continue to be so in the future. Along trails, we found higher alien species richness and cover on trail (as opposed to 4 m from the trail) in 3 out of 4 vegetation types, and we observed higher alien richness and cover in meadows than in other vegetation types. Plant communities at both trailheads and trails, as well as seed banks at trailheads, contain substantial diversity and abundance of alien plants. These results suggest that recreational trails in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado may function as corridors that facilitate the spread of alien species into wildlands. Our results suggest that control of alien plants should begin at trailheads where there are large numbers of aliens and that control efforts on trails should be prioritized by vegetation type.

Colorado↗