%0 Research article
%T Nutrient concentration of down woody debris in mixedwood forests in central Maine, USA
%A Saunders, Mike R.
%A Fraver, Shawn
%A Wagner, Robert G.
%D 2011
%J Silva Fennica
%V 45
%N 2
%R doi:10.14214/sf.112
%U https://silvafennica.fi/article/112
%X Both nutrient concentrations and pre- and post-harvest pool sizes were  determined across down woody debris decay classes of several hardwood  and softwood species in a long-term, natural disturbance based,  silvicultural experiment in central Maine. Concentrations of N, P, Ca,  Mg, Cu, Fe, and Zn generally increased 2- to 5-fold with increasing  decay class. Concentrations of Mn, Al and B did not differ among decay  classes, while K decreased by 20–44% from decay class 1 to class 4.  C:N-ratios declined with increasing decay class, while N:P-ratios  increased from decay class 1 to 2 and then plateaued with further decay.  Within decay classes, softwoods generally had lower nutrient  concentrations and higher C:N-ratios than hardwoods; N:P-ratios did not  differ between hardwoods and softwoods. Although gap harvesting  increased the size of the overall down woody debris nutrient pools,  mostly through a large pulse of decay class 1 material, harvesting  generally reduced the nutrients held in advanced decay classes.  Pre-harvest down woody debris pools for N, P, K and Ca were 11.0, 0.6,  2.1 and 21.1 kg ha<sup>–1</sup>, respectively, while postharvest were 20.0, 1.3, 6.2 and 46.2 kg ha<sup>–1</sup>,  respectively. While the gap-based silvicultural systems sampled in this  study doubled the size of the pre-harvest, downed woody debris nutrient  pools, the post-harvest pools were estimated to be only 3.2–9.1% of  aboveground nutrients.