Carbon sequestration in a chronosequence of Scots pine stands in a reclaimed opencast oil shale mine

Abstract

Ecosystems that develop on mine spoil can serve as significant sinks for CO2. The aim of this study was to estimate the rate of carbon accumulation and its distribution along forest ecosystem partitions in young Scots pine ( Pinus sylvestris L.) plantations in the Narva oil shale opencast, Estonia. The tree layer was measured in 2004 in 13 stands afforested with 2-year-old seedlings during 1968 to 1994. Three stands (afforested in 1990, 1983, and 1968) were selected for detailed analysis of the carbon sequestration. Soil profiles were sampled in these stands in 2005. Radiocarbon analysis combined with a simple model of litter production was used to differentiate between plant-derived recent carbon and carbon stemming from fragments of oil shale. Total carbon accumulated since afforestation in vegetation, forest floor, and A horizon was 7.8 t·ha–1 in the stand established in 1990, 34.5 t·ha–1 in that established in 1983, and 133.4 t·ha–1 in that established in 1968. Most of the sequestered carbon was allocated to tree stems; their portion increasing with age from 28% to 51%. The portion of recent soil organic carbon increased from 5% to 23%, which shows that soils contribute significantly to carbon accumulation during early forest succession on degraded land.

Growth, aboveground biomass, and nutrient concentration of young Scots pine and lodgepole pine in oil shale post-mining landscapes in Estonia

“…These results are in accordance with the results of Ågren and Knecht (2001) and Norgren (1996), who reported that lodgepole pine allocates a larger proportion of aboveground biomass to the needles than Scots pine. Our results of aboveground biomass allocation in young Scots pine and lodgepole pine are in accordance with data published by other researchers for Scots pine (Xiao and Ceulemans 2004;Karu 2005) and for lodgepole pine (Turner et al 2004). We found that lodgepole pine allocated 27% of the aboveground biomass to the stem and Scots pine 31%; however, the mean stem mass of lodgepole pine was greater than that of Scots pine (respectively 282.2 and 245.0 g).…”

“…Magnani et al (2000) in their study of Scots pine stands of different age found that maximum aboveground primary Current-year 1-year-old Density of needles, per cm Scots pine Lodgepole pine Fig. 6 Density of needles on current-year and 1-year-old shoots of Scots pine and lodgepole pine production occurs at the age of 14-18 years with the height of trees 7.7-9.9 m. Karu (2005) found that the height, diameter, and biomass increment of Scots pine begins to decrease at the age of 25 and at the height of 6-8 m.…”

Reforestation and slope-position effects on nitrogen, phosphorus pools, and carbon stability of various soil aggregates in a red soil hilly land of subtropical China

“…There is some concern about the risk of soil organic C loss resulting from human activity during forest establishment (Karu et al 2009). Forests generate much higher organic inputs to the soil through root and foliar litters; therefore, the lack of difference in soil organic matter between the two land uses may indicate an initial loss of soil C that has gradually been corrected over the past 19 years.…”

Estimation of carbon sequestration in reclaimed coalmine degraded land dominated by Albizia lebbeck, Dalbergia sissoo and Bambusa arundinacea plantation: a case study from Jharia Coalfields, India

“…Total 5 replicate of samples were collected from the study site. Samples were dried in an oven at 80°C to constant weight to obtain the moisture free dry weight as followed by others (Karu et al 2009;Singh et al 2011) and expressed as Mg ha -1 C stock was calculated by multiplying a factor 0.4 assuming 40 % carbon present in the litter.…”

“…In the present study, carbon stored in the understorey vegetation and litter components was 0.98 Mg C ha -1 , which is lower than other reported values. (Karu et al 2009;Pragasan and Parthasarathy 2005). C stock in litter component of reclaimed minesoil of Midwestern and Appalachian coalfields (USA) comprised of pine, hardwood and mixed stand was estimated 21.2, 14 and 6 Mg ha -1 respectively (Amichev et al 2008).…”