Abstract
Accurate field measurements from inventories across fine spatial scales are critical to improve sampling designs and to increase the precision of forest C cycling modeling. By studying soils undisturbed from active forest management, this paper gives a unique insight in the naturally occurring variability of organic layer C and provides valuable references against which subsequent and future sampling schemes can be evaluated. We found that the organic layer C stocks displayed great short-range variability with spatial autocorrelation distances ranging from 0.86 up to 2.85 m. When spatial autocorrelations are known, we show that a minimum of 20 inventory samples separated by ∼5 m is needed to determine the organic layer C stock with a precision of ±0.5 kg C m−2. Our data also demonstrates a strong relationship between the organic layer C stock and horizon thickness (R2 ranging from 0.58 to 0.82). This relationship suggests that relatively inexpensive measurements of horizon thickness can supplement soil C sampling, by reducing the number of soil samples collected, or to enhance the spatial resolution of organic layer C mapping.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 521 |
Journal | Environmental Monitoring and Assessment |
Volume | 187 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 28 2015 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2015, Springer International Publishing Switzerland.
Keywords
- Boreal forest
- Forest floor
- Geostatistics
- Kyoto protocol
- Norway spruce
- Podzols
- Spatial autocorrelation