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Forest management is widespread globally and has large implications on terrestrial carbon stocks. Despite this, changes in soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics in response to land management practices, such as forest harvest operations, afforestation, and restoration, are often poorly accounted for owing to high fine-scale variation in soil biogeochemistry. As interest in the climate mitigation potential of forests continues to grow, it will be increasingly important to understand variation in soil carbon dynamics in working forests to (1) assess changes in soil carbon in response to global environmental perturbations and (2) better inform carbon accounting and accreditation programs.
My work explores two broad topics related to forest management and soil carbon dynamics. First, using a series of long-term monitoring plots established within a chronosequence of irregular shelterwood stands harvested between 1994 and 2016 and unmanaged reference stands, I am working to explore fine-scale variation in the effects of forest management on soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics (more forthcoming but see Carpenter et al. 2021). Second, using experimental urban afforestation plots in a degraded New York City park, I investigated the long-term effects of different forest restoration treatments on soil biogeochemical processes (Ward et al. 2021). In this study, we found that the addition of compost had long-term positive effects on tree growth and soil processes but that tree planting alone had no long-term effects on soil carbon storage. |
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Relevant publications
Ward EB*, DA Doroski*, AJ Felson, RA Hallet, EE Oldfield, SE Kuebbing, and MA Bradford. 2021. Positive long‐term impacts of restoration on soils in an experimental urban forest. Ecological Applications 31: e02336.
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Carpenter R, EB Ward, J Wikle, MC Duguid, MA Bradford, and MS Ashton. 2021. Soil nutrient recovery after shelterwood timber harvesting in a temperate oak hardwood forest: Insights using a twenty-five-year chronosequence. Forest Ecology and Management.
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Carpenter R, EB Ward, J Wikle, MC Duguid, MA Bradford, and MS Ashton. 2021. Soil nutrient recovery after shelterwood timber harvesting in a temperate oak hardwood forest: Insights using a twenty-five-year chronosequence. Forest Ecology and Management.
