Metla Project 3422

Interlinkages between forest biodiversity and carbon sequestration

Duration: 2006-2011   Keywords: UN Framework Convention on Climate Chan, biodiversity, change in soil carbon stock, convention on biological diversity (CBD), development of monitoring methods, forest carbon sink, soil organic matter
Research project group: Distinct projects 1 - Structure and function of forest ecosystems

Objectives

The project provide new knowledge on the succession of fungi on decaying wood and their functional role in the decomposition process. The project develops stand growth models and soil decomposition models that  benefit the predictions of future forest development as the environment and silviculture changes.

The aims of the project can be divided up in to three subprojects:

I. Ecology of dead wood decaying fungi and its ecosystem function

• Modelling of the species' habitat requirements.
• Comparison of species and diversity information obtained with contrasting methods, DNA sequencing and visual observations.
• Modelling of species succession on dead wood.

II. Stand dynamics and availability of dead wood substrate in changing environment

• Testing and developing models of dead wood dynamics that can be used to estimate dead wood input and quality changes in different silvicultural scenarios.
• Further development of forest growth model by combining it with models of soil water balance and decomposition.
• Studying the effects of climate change on the biomass allocation and carbon flows.
• Analyses of silvicultural options for the carbon sink and biodiversity of forests in changing climate.

III. Regional variation in forest structure and species habitats

• Study of the regional variation in the occurrence of wood decaying fungi species.
• Analyses of the effects habitat patchiness on species occurrence.
• Analysis of the causes and spatial and temporal changes in the forest fire and other disturbance regimes.
• Analysis of the variation of net primary production (NPP) within Finland, and using this information to estimate changes in the forest carbon stocks.

Carbon sequestration into forest biomass, dead wood and soil slows down the climate change (video)

Results

I. Ecology of target species and relationship between species diversity and ecosystem functioning

• Lignin, nitrogen and moisture content of decaying Norway spruce logs increase along with density loss (See a poster and a presentation).
• RNA analysis of wood-inhabiting fungi showed that soft-rot fungi and other ascomycetes dominated in the initial stages of decay succession, white- and brown rot fungi were abundant until moderate decay, while mycorrhizal fungi dominated in strongly decayed logs. Fungal diversity increased during wood decomposition. See the publication Rajala et al. 2011 (pdf)
• Tree species harbor different fungal communities. See the publication Rajala et al. 2010 (pdf)
• Polypore fruitbodies shows only a part of true fungal diversity in wood, whereas completeness of fungal identification is determined by DNA method and reference database in use. See the publication Ovaskainen et al. 2010 (pdf)

II. Stand dynamics and availability of dead wood substrate in changing environment

• Management practices affect forest carbon stocks. In the changing climate, carbon stocks of forest soil and vegetation are larger than in the current climate. Carbon stocks increase both in managed and unmanaged forests. Carbon stocks of unmanaged forests are larger than stocks in the managed forests. See an article Mäkipää et al 2011 (pdf)
• According to the results tree growth correlated weakly but significantly with needle litterfall in a Scots pine stand in Kivalo, Rovaniemi with a lag of 4 years. Especially, weather conditions 4 and 6 years ago had influence to needle litterfall. It was also noticed that spring precipitation correlated negatively with needle litterfall. See an article Lehtonen et al 2008 (pdf)
• Analysis of the tree mortality in the unmanaged stands showed that smaller competitors do not influence the mortality probabilities of larger spruce individuals and smaller trees are more tolerant to competition than larger trees. The developed simple competition index can be easily integrated to many stand growth models to provide mortality estimates under unconventional management. See the publication Peltoniemi, M. & Mäkipää, R. 2010 and the presentation.

III. Regional variation in forest structure and species habitats

• There occur evident differences in the forest landscape structure along the Finnish-Russian border in southern Karelia. On the Finnish side the forest patches are significantly smaller than on the Russian side. In addition, the Finnish forests landscape is more scattered and distances between patches of the same forest type are longer. The landscape pattern was analysed using classification data based on Landsat satellite images. The habitat fragmentation and habitat connectivity are important issues because the Karelian Isthmus is one of three main corridors and migrating routes connecting large Russian boreal taiga forests and their fauna and flora with Finnish isolated boreal forests. See the publication Muukkonen et al 2009 (pdf)
• Recent investigations show that the pollen accumulation rate (PAR) of the common tree taxa is directly related to the biomass and, by inference, to the population size of the taxa around the study site. Fossil PAR records preserved in lakes provide therefore a potential proxy for quantitative biomass and population
  reconstructions. See the publication Seppä et al 2009 (pdf)
• Norway spruce (Picea abies), one of the dominant tree species in Eurasia, has spread slowly westward in northern Europe, invading eastern Finland about 6500 calibrated years ago (cal. years BP), eastern central Sweden about 2700 cal. years BP and southern Norway about 1000 cal. years BP. Our results show that the P. abies population increased in size from the time of the initial expansion to levels comparable with the modern in 100–550 years. At each site P. abies invaded a dense, intact Pinus–Betula–Alnus forest, mixed with temperate deciduous taxa, particularly Tilia cordata and Corylus avellana. Of the taxa that formed the resident forest, T. cordata responded most strongly to the invasion of P. abies. This suggests that the mid-Holocene T. cordata population decline was not directly limateinduced but resulted from competitive replacement due to overlapping ecological niches with P. abies, a stronger competitor. See the publication Seppä et al 2009
• Regional variation in the biomass resources was illustrated with a map that was based on national forest inventory data, k-NN estimation and new biomass models. See poster (pdf)
• We characterized forest management impacts on the GHG budget of forest ecosystems in different European regions. We analysed different options that a forest owner has in order to maintain forest carbon sequestration and evaluated major factors that influence carbon sequestration potential in Europe. See article Nabuurs et al. 2008. FEM 256: 194-200.
• Majority of the European countries has forest inventory data that facilitate assessment of forest carbon balance on regional and national scale. The models that are needed in the carbon assessment are already available and their validity have been tested. See article Mäkipää et al. 2008. In Dolman et al. The Continental-Scale Greenhouse Gas Balance of Europe.

For results of our prefious projects, see http://www.metla.fi/hanke/3306/index-en.htm

Publications

Oral and poster presentations

Final seminar on Seminar on Forest ecology and challenges in the forest modeling, at the Finnish Forest Research Institute, Vantaa, Finland, 15 December 2011

Presentation at GEO-Carbon Conference: Carbon in a changing world, FAO, Rome, Italy, October 24-26, 2011

• Mäkipää et al. Soil carbon monitoring at large geographical scales - a method based on soil survey combined with modelling (pdf)

Presentation at Metsätieteen Päivä (a Day of Forest Science) Helsinki, Finland, October 26, 2011

• Rajala et al. Community structure of wood-inhabiting fungi in relation to substrate quality of decaying Norway spruces (pdf)
• Valentin et al. Fungal community composition affects the rate of decomposition in Picea abies woody substrate (pdf)
• Linkosalo et al. Voiko metsämaan vesitaseen simuloinneilla selittää ja ennustaa metsän kuivuusvaurioiden esiintymistä? (pdf)

Presentation at 'International Scientific-Practical Conference on INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGIES IN FORESTRY, 22-23 March, 2011, St.Petersburg, Russia

• Mäkipää and Vapaavuori, Implications of changing climate on forest management (pdf)
• Раиса Макипаа и Элина Вапаавуори, Воздействие климатических изменений на лесопользование (pdf)

Presentation at Metsätieteen Päivä (a Day of Forest Science), Helsinki, Finland, November 4, 2010

• Rajala et al., Diversity of wood-inhabiting fungal community in relation to substrate quality of decaying logs (pdf)
• Peltoniemi & Mäkipää. Quantifying distance-independent tree competition for predicting Norway spruce mortality in unmanaged forests (pdf)

Presentation at IMC9 - The Biology of Fungi, Edinburgh, UK, 1-6 August 2010

• Rajala et al. Structure of wood-inhabiting fungal community in relation to quality of decaying Norway spruce logs (pdf)

Presentation at IUFRO Conference on Multipurpose Forest Management, Niigata, Japan, September 20-25, 2009

• Mäkipää et al. How forest carbon sequestration is affected by management and climate change? (pdf)

Presentation at '6th International Symposium on Ecosystem Behavior BIOGEOMON 2009', June 29 - July 3, 2009, Helsinki, Finland

• Makipaa et al. Differences in forest carbon stock and timber supply between management options under changing climate (pdf)
• Linkosalo et al. Predicting the probability of severe droughts and changes in potential GPP under changing climate (pdf)

Presentation at '21st New Phytologist Symposium. The ecology of ectomycorrhizal fungi', 10-12 December 2008, Montpellier, France.

• Rajala et al. Fungal diversity in decaying logs: proportion of ectomycorrhizal fungi revealed by DGGE fingerprinting and pyrosequencing (pdf)

Presentation at '51st Annual Symposium of International Association of Vegetation Science (IAVS) - Frontiers of Vegetation Science', September 7-12, 2008, Stellenbosch University, South-Africa.

• Mäkipää et al. Succession of wood-inhabiting fungi during decomposition of the dead wood (pdf)

Presentation at 'Nordic workshop on habitat structure and nature quality', May 14-15, 2008, Roskilde, Denmark.

• Mäkipää, R. Measuring spatial structure and its effects on biodiversity in Finland (pdf)

Presentation at the ForestSat'07 conference , November 5-7 , 2007, Montpellier, France.

• Lehtonen et al. Biomass mapping for Central Finland with Landsat images (pdf)

Project leader: Mäkipää, Raisa
The Finnish Forest Research Institute, Vantaa Unit, PO Box 18 (Jokiniemenkuja 1), FI-01301 VANTAA, FINLAND
Phone: +358 29 532 2197
E-mail: raisa.makipaa@metla.fi

Other researchers: Härkönen, Sanna, VA (2009-11), Lehtonen, Aleksi, VA (2007-08), Linkosalo, Tapio, VA (2008-09), Peltoniemi, Mikko, VA (2007-08), Penttilä, Reijo, VA (2008-09), Siitonen, Juha, VA (2008-11)

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Updated 02.02.2013
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