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Erdoğan Betül Uygur, Asocc. prof.

Thinning Impacts on Carbon and Water Budgets in a Temperate Deciduous Forest Ecosystem

volume: 46, issue: 1

Among various forest management activities, thinning is a prevalent treatment that affects tree growth and living biomass. Increased moisture and light availability may also enhance the mineralization of litter and dead wood organic matter, impacting soil carbon stocks. Thinning may also affect the services forests provide, including water production and nutrient cycling. The impacts of thinning on water yield and carbon stocks have been well documented around the globe while targeting mainly one of these ecosystem services. Our experimental paired catchment study covers both and puts forward long term results. We assessed the carbon stock changes caused by two slight thinning treatments together with the impacts on water yield in experimental paired catchments of 71.9 (W–I) and 77.5 hectares (W–IV) in Istanbul, Türkiye. The null hypothesis was that the slight thinnings did not affect the water yield and carbon stocks significantly. On the carbon stock part, we calibrated and parametrized the CBM–CF3 model with field measurements to simulate changes in carbon stocks of mixed deciduous forest stands. The intensities of the treatments (thinnings) were 11% and 18% of the basal area, performed in 1986 and 2011, respectively. We found that, while C stocks decreased by around 30 tons per hectare during the 1986–2020 period, the water yield was enhanced by approximately 25 mm/yr in the treatment catchment compared to the control watershed during the four-year post-treatment period. This amount of streamflow increase was around 10 percent of the average water yield of the catchments. It was concluded that there was a detectable increase in water yield during the following four years of the slight thinning treatments, while the reduction in abovegound carbon stocks continued for more than three decades.

Thinning Impacts on Carbon and Water Budgets in a Temperate Deciduous Forest Ecosystem

volume: issue, issue:

Among various forest management activities, thinning is a prevalent treatment that affects tree growth and living biomass. Increased moisture and light availability may also enhance the mineralization of litter and dead wood organic matter, impacting soil carbon stocks. Thinning may also affect the services forests provide, including water production and nutrient cycling. The impacts of thinning on water yield and carbon stocks have been well documented around the globe while targeting mainly one of these ecosystem services. Our experimental paired catchment study covers both and puts forward long term results. We assessed the carbon stock changes caused by two slight thinning treatments together with the impacts on water yield in experimental paired catchments of 71.9 (W–I) and 77.5 hectares (W–IV) in Istanbul, Türkiye. The null hypothesis was that the slight thinnings did not affect the water yield and carbon stocks significantly. On the carbon stock part, we calibrated and parametrized the CBM–CF3 model with field measurements to simulate changes in carbon stocks of mixed deciduous forest stands. The intensities of the treatments (thinnings) were 11% and 18% of the basal area, performed in 1986 and 2011, respectively. We found that, while C stocks decreased by around 30 tons per hectare during the 1986–2020 period, the water yield was enhanced by approximately 25 mm/yr in the treatment catchment compared to the control watershed during the four-year post-treatment period. This amount of streamflow increase was around 10 percent of the average water yield of the catchments. It was concluded that there was a detectable increase in water yield during the following four years of the slight thinning treatments, while the reduction in abovegound carbon stocks continued for more than three decades.

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Web of Science Impact factor (2023): 2.7
Five-years impact factor: 2.3

Quartile: Q1 - Forestry

Subject area

Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Category/Quartile

Forestry/Q1