Estimation of fuel loads and carbon stocks of forest floor in endemic Dalmatian black pine forests

doi:10.3832/ifor3184-013

Estimation of fuel loads and carbon stocks of forest floor in endemic Dalmatian black pine forests

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 13, Issue 5, Pages 382-388 (2020)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor3184-013
Published: Sep 01, 2020 - Copyright © 2020 SISEF

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Estimation of forest floor loading is important for many forest management applications, especially those related to fire management and carbon balance. We quantified the physical properties (depth, fuel load, bulk density) and carbon stocks of endemic Dalmatian black pine (Pinus nigra J.F. Arnold subsp. dalmatica [Vis.] Franco) forest floor layers. We also examined how these properties differ with stand age and layer. Forest floor depths ranged from 1.5 cm to 11.5 cm and forest floor fuel (FFF) loads ranged from 11.9 Mg ha^-1 in the young stand to 197.3 Mg ha^-1 in the old stand. Forest floor carbon (FFC) stocks ranged from 6.4 Mg C ha^-1 in the young stand to 85.8 Mg C ha^-1 in the old stand. We developed regression equations that can be used to convert the investigated forest floor depth into load in each layer individually and across all layers. These equations, together with the organic carbon (OC) concentration determined here for individual forest floor layers, simplify quantification of carbon stocks in the forest floor. Bulk density (BD) values reported here can also be used to convert depth measurements to loads for each layer and the entire forest floor. The results presented here are suitable for rapid estimation of FFF loads and FFC stocks based solely on forest floor depth, without the need to sample and analyze large amounts of forest floor fuels. Similarly, spatial distribution in FFF loads and carbon stocks can be assessed simply by measuring forest floor depths.

Keywords

Dalmatian Black Pine, Forest Floor, Fuel Load, Carbon Stock, Bulk Density

Authors’ address

(1)

University of Zagreb, Faculty of Forestry, Svetošimunska cesta 23, 10002 Zagreb (Croatia)

Corresponding author

Darko Bakšić
dbaksic@sumfak.hr

Citation

Bakšić N, Bakšić D (2020). Estimation of fuel loads and carbon stocks of forest floor in endemic Dalmatian black pine forests. iForest 13: 382-388. - doi: 10.3832/ifor3184-013

Academic Editor

Rossella Guerrieri

Paper history

Received: Jul 04, 2019
Accepted: Jun 27, 2020

First online: Sep 01, 2020
Publication Date: Oct 31, 2020
Publication Time: 2.20 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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