A study on the Soil Carbon Cycle in Temperate Deciduous and Evergreen Coniferous Forests

Abstract

We investigated the differences in environment of forest floor and soil characteristics between the evergreen coniferous and the temperate deciduous forests that different in dominant species in Goesan, Chungcheongbuk-Do. The accumulated litter in the deciduous forest was higher than the coniferous forest(368.3 ± 19.51 g m -2 h -1 and 405.2 ± 21.4 g m -2 h -1 ) in 2005. The decomposition rate of leaf litter were measured with litter bags and reduced across all sites 6 month after setup. the decomposition rate of leaf litter in the deciduous forest was higher than the coniferous forest(31.4% and 32.5%). The accumulated carbon of the evergreen coniferous and the temperate deciduous forests in 0~30cm soil depth were measured 81.13 t C ha -1 , 86.45 t C ha -1 respectively. Soil respiration was estimated to be 187.0 ~ 297.5 mg CO 2 m -2 h -1 in the temperate deciduous forest and 196.2 ~ 444.5 mg CO 2 m -2 h -1 in the evergreen coniferous forest, respectively. The deciduous forests was measured higher inflow and outflow of carbon (high soil carbon contents, high litterfall, high decomposition rate of litter and high soil respiration rate) than the evergreen coniferous forest.