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Characterizing the Carbon Fluxes of a Bottomland Hardwood Forest
  • Melissa Bloch,
  • Joydeep Bhattacharjee
Melissa Bloch
University of Louisiana Monroe

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Joydeep Bhattacharjee
University of Louisiana Monroe
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Abstract

Bottomland hardwood forests are a historically dominant ecosystem in the Southeastern United States, with 5.3 million-acres remaining in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Despite the importance of forested wetlands in the global carbon cycle, not much is known about CO2 exchanges in such periodically flooded ecosystems. To address this, CO2 fluxes were measured over a mature, predominantly oak bottomland hardwood forest canopy in Northeast Louisiana. Measurements were carried out from a 37m tower, between August 2013 to October 2018, using the eddy covariance technique. Like other deciduous broadleaf forests, the site exhibited distinct diurnal and seasonal variability and was a net carbon sink during the spring and summer months, but unlike the majority of such forests and inland wetlands, the site was a net source of carbon annually. The cumulative annual net ecosystem exchange (NEE) ranged from 95.99 g C m-2 in 2014, to 267.91 g C m-2 in 2017, with an average annual NEE of 127.75 g C m-2. To better understand the variability, the relationship between the environmental factors and the components of NEE were observed. Diurnally, GPP increased with increasing global radiation and exceeded Reco from around 830 till around 1800 hrs. Seasonally, nighttime Reco increased with temperature. GPP increased and exceeded Reco from late March to early August, with a corresponding increase in the length of daylight, temperature, and leaf area index. GPP values showed more variability than Reco on a daily scale, thereby having a more distinct effect on the NEE. Research is on-going to better understand the effects of the characteristic flooding on carbon fluxes in this unique ecosystem.