%0 Research article
%T Soil CO2 flux during the first years after stump harvesting in two Swedish forests
%A Strömgren, Monika
%A Mjöfors, Kristina
%A Holmström, Björn
%A Grelle, Achim
%D 2012
%J Silva Fennica
%V 46
%N 1
%R doi:10.14214/sf.66
%U https://silvafennica.fi/article/66
%X One way of increasing the supply of renewable energy, thereby decreasing  the use of fossil fuels, is to extract the stumps that remain after  final stem harvesting. However, little is known about the environmental  consequences of stump harvesting, and how ecosystem services, such as  carbon sequestration, are affected by the practice. In the present  paper, the effects on the soil carbon pool during the first months and  years after stump harvesting in former Norway spruce stands are  presented. The study was performed at two sites in mid- and southern  Sweden. At both sites, the soil CO<sub>2</sub> flux was measured on  several occasions with a portable respiration system, to compare plots  on which stump harvesting had occurred, with reference plots. At one of  the sites, CO<sub>2</sub> exchange was also followed continuously by  means of eddy-covariance measurements before and after stump harvesting.  Since there was no vegetation at the beginning of the study, almost all  emitted CO<sub>2</sub> could be assumed to come from heterotrophic sources, and the soil CO<sub>2</sub> flux was measured. This study shows that the effect of stump harvesting on CO<sub>2</sub> flux or soil decomposition processes is small or absent compared to  site preparation such as mounding in a short-term perspective of months  and years. The long-term consequences of stump harvesting are, however,  still uncertain.