NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Tags: biology, forestry, carbon, boreal forests, black spruce, jack pine, root systems, biophysics

Objective(s): Main objective of the fieldwork is to collect data in jack pine and black spruce forests on annual movement of organic matter and carbon. Additional objective is to establish a several-square-kilometer study area of mostly black spruce for a regional study of stand development and its relationship to environmental factors.

Project Description: Main objective of the fieldwork is to collect data in jack pine and black spruce forests on annual movement of organic matter and carbon. For this purpose, the researchers will continue measurement of the growth of fine roots and amount of aboveground litter. Additional objective is to establish a several-square-kilometer study area of mostly black spruce for a regional study of stand development and its relationship to environmental factors (a discipline called ‘silvichronology’). Five methods will be used. 1) Soil and air temperature will be measured with sensors and data loggers. 2) Aboveground forest litter will be collected with the litter traps. 3) Annual growth of fine roots will be estimated by setting the fine root ingrowth/litter trap cores made of cylindrical thin soil columns in the study plots. 4) About ten study plots of boreal forests will be established in a several-square-kilometer area, and mar... Show moreked permanently for a study of silvichronology. Tree sizes and numbers of these stands will be measured as the base-line data. 5) Several trees will be cut in areas adjacent to each of about ten plots (therefore, about 50 trees in total, including small individuals of less than one-meter tall) for the study of silvichronolgy to examine tree rings and history of stand development. The researchers may give a seminar on their research activity to the local community. They may also organize a field trip to their study site with the South Slave Research Centre for explaining their research activities to interested persons. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from July 22 to September 30, 2010, at: (a) Forest stands adjacent to and along Highway #5, between the Park boundary of Wood Buffalo National Park west of Fort Smith and Angus Tower (Study area a). (b) A several-square-kilometer area of boreal forests outside of Wood Buffalo National Park and along Highway #5, between the Park boundary west of Fort Smith and the intersection between the road leading to Thebacha Campground and Highway #5 (excluding the settlement near the Salt River) (Study area b). Show less