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Updated: Aug 2, 2026
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Measurement of Greenhouse Gas Flux from Agricultural Soils Using Static Chambers
Published on: August 3, 2014
A simple method for estimating gross carbon budgets for vegetation in forest ecosystems
1USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, 240 West Prospect Road, Fort Collins, CO 80526-2098, USA.
Tree Physiology
|July 1, 1991
Summary
Constructing forest carbon budgets is challenging. This study presents a new method using empirical relationships to estimate belowground carbon allocation and respiration, improving accuracy for forest carbon accounting.
Area of Science:
- Forest Ecology
- Ecosystem Carbon Cycling
- Biogeochemistry
Background:
- Accurate gross carbon budgets for forest vegetation are difficult due to challenges in scaling flux measurements and determining belowground carbon allocation.
- Existing methods struggle with integrating small-scale flux data and belowground processes into comprehensive ecosystem carbon budgets.
- Recent advances include empirical relationships for estimating belowground carbon allocation from litterfall and maintenance respiration from tissue nitrogen content.
Purpose of the Study:
- To outline a novel method for estimating gross carbon budgets in forest ecosystems.
- To integrate readily available ecosystem study data with new empirical relationships for improved carbon budget estimations.
- To compare the proposed method's estimates with established modeling approaches like the Forest-BGC model.
Main Methods:
- Utilized empirical relationships to estimate total belowground carbon allocation from litterfall data.
- Employed tissue nitrogen content to estimate maintenance respiration.
- Combined these estimates with readily available data (aboveground production and biomass, litterfall, tissue nitrogen) to construct gross carbon budgets.
Main Results:
- Developed a method for estimating gross carbon budgets using accessible ecosystem data and empirical relationships.
- Generated carbon budget estimates for lodgepole pine and Pacific silver fir chronosequences.
- Compared these estimates against annual carbon fixation data from the Forest-BGC model.
Conclusions:
- The proposed method offers a practical approach to constructing forest vegetation gross carbon budgets.
- This method enhances the ability to account for belowground carbon dynamics, a critical component of forest carbon cycling.
- Findings provide a valuable tool for ecosystem studies and carbon accounting in forest management.
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