Plant biomass accumulation and productivity are important determinants of ecosystem carbon (C) balance during post-fire succession.
In boreal black spruce (
Picea mariana) forests near Delta Junction, Alaska, we quantified aboveground plant biomass and net primary productivity (ANPP) for 4 years
after a 1999 wildfire in a well-drained (dry) site, and also across a dry and a moderately well-drained (mesic) chronosequence
of sites that varied in time since fire (2 to ∼116 years). Four years after fire, total biomass at the 1999 burn site had
increased exponentially to 160 ± 21 g m
−2 (mean ± 1SE) and vascular ANPP had recovered to 138 ± 32 g m
−2 y
−1, which was not different than that of a nearby unburned stand (160 ± 48 g m
−2 y
−1) that had similar pre-fire stand structure and understory composition. Production in the young site was dominated by re-sprouting
graminoids, whereas production in the unburned site was dominated by black spruce. On the dry and mesic chronosequences, total
biomass pools, including overstory and understory vascular and non-vascular plants, and lichens, increased logarithmically
(dry) or linearly (mesic) with increasing site age, reaching a maximum of 2469 ± 180 (dry) and 4008 ± 233 g m
−2 (mesic) in mature stands. Biomass differences were primarily due to higher tree density in the mesic sites because mass per
tree was similar between sites. ANPP of vascular and non-vascular plants increased linearly over time in the mesic chronosequence
to 335 ± 68 g m
−2 y
−1 in the mature site, but in the dry chronosequence it peaked at 410 ± 43 g m
−2 y
−1 in a 15-year-old stand dominated by deciduous trees and shrubs. Key factors regulating biomass accumulation and production
in these ecosystems appear to be the abundance and composition of re-sprouting species early in succession, the abundance
of deciduous trees and shrubs in intermediate aged stands, and the density of black spruce across all stand ages. A better
understanding of the controls over these factors will help predict how changes in climate and fire regime will affect the
carbon balance of Interior Alaska.
Keywords boreal forest - fire - soil drainage - biomass accumulation - aboveground net primary production - plant species composition