Abstract
We studied within-site spatial variation of the carbon stock in the organic layer of boreal forest soil. A total of 1,006 soil samples were taken in ten forest stands (five Scots pine stands and five Norway spruce stands). Our results indicate that the spatial autocorrelation disappears at a distance of 75–225 cm. This spatial autocorrelation should be taken into account in the sampling design by locating the sampling points at adequate intervals. With a sample size of over 20–30 samples per site, additional soil samples do not notably improve the precision of the site mean estimate. An adequate sample size is dependent on the purpose of sampling and on the site-specific soil variation. Our results on the dependence between sample size and precision of the mean estimates can be applied in designing efficient soil monitoring in boreal coniferous forests.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahti, T., Hämet-Ahti, L., & Jalas, J. (1968). Vegetation zones and their sections in northwestern Europe. Annales Botanici Fennici, 5, 169–211.
Birdsey, R. (2004). Data gaps for monitoring forest carbon in the United States: An inventory perspective. Environmental Management, 33, S1–S8. doi:10.1007/s00267-003-9113-6.
Cajander, A. K. (1926). The theory of forest types. Acta Forestalia Fennica, 29, 108.
Cajander, A. K. (1949). Forest types and their significance. Acta Forestalia Fennica, 56, 71.
Callesen, I., Liski, J., Raulund-Rasmussen, K., Olsson, M. T., Tau-Strands, L., Vesterdal, L., et al. (2003). Soil carbon stores in Nordic well-drained forest soils—relationships with climate and texture class. Global Change Biology, 9, 358–370. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2486.2003.00587.x.
Conant, R. T., & Paustian, K. (2002). Spatial variability of soil organic carbon in grasslands: Implications for detecting change at different scales. Environmental Pollution, 116, S127–S135. doi:10.1016/S0269-7491(01)00265-2.
Conant, R. T., Smith, G. B., & Paustian, K. (2003). Spatial variability of soil carbon in forested and cultivated sites: Implications for change detection. Journal of Environmental Quality, 32, 278–286.
Conen, F., Yakutin, M. V., & Sambuu, A. D. (2003). Potential for detecting changes in soil organic carbon concentrations resulting from climate change. Global Change Biology, 9, 1515–1520. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2486.2003.00689.x.
Conen, F., Zerva, A., Arrouays, D., Jolivet, C., Jarvis, P. G., Grace, J., et al. (2004). The carbon balance of forest soils: Detectability of changes in soil carbon stocks in temperate and boreal forests. In H. Griffith & P. G. Jarvis (Eds), The carbon balance of forest biomes (pp. 233–247). Oxford: Garland Science/BIOS Scientific.
Cressie, N. A. C. (1993). Statistics for spatial data (928 p.). New York: Wiley.
Ellert, B. H., Janzen, H. H., & McConkey, B. G. (2000). Measuring and comparing soil carbon storage. In R. Lal, et al. (Eds), Assessment methods for soil carbon (pp. 131–146). London: Lewis.
Finnish Forest Research Institute. (2007). Finnish statistical yearbook of forestry (436 p.). Vantaa: Finnish Forest Research Institute.
Gaudinski, J. B., Trumbore, S. E., Davidson, E. A., & Zheng, S. (2000). Soil carbon cycling in a temperate forest: Radiocarbon-based estimates of residence times, sequestration rates and partitioning of fluxes. Biogeochemistry, 51, 33–69. doi:10.1023/A:1006301010014.
Gustavsen, H. G., Roiko-Jokela, P. & varmola, M. (1988). Kivennäismaiden talosumetsien pysyvät (Inka ja Tinka) kokeet. Finnish Forest Research Institute Research Papers, 292, 212.
IPCC. (2003a). Good practice guidance for land use, land-use change and forestry (295 p.). Hayama, Japan: IPCC National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Programme.
IPCC. (2003b). Report on good practice guidance for land use, land-use change and forestry. IPCC National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Programme. Retrieved from http://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/gpglulucf/gpglulucf.htm.
IPCC. (2006). Guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories, agriculture, forestry and other land use (Vol. 4). IPCC National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Programme. Retrieved from http://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol4.htm.
Jian-Bing, W., Du-Ning, X., Xing-Yi, Z., Xiu-Zhen, L., & Xiao-Yu, L. (2006). Spatial variability of soil organic carbon in relation to environmental factors of a typical small watershed in the black soil region, Northeast China. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 121, 597–613. doi:10.1007/s10661-005-9158-5.
Liski, J. (1995). Variation in soil organic carbon and thickness of soil horizons within a boreal forest stand—effect of trees and implications for sampling. Silva Fennica, 29, 255–266.
Liski, J. (1997). Carbon storage of forest soils in Finland (Vol. 16, p. 46). University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Ecology Publications.
Liski, J., & Westman, C. J. (1995). Density of organic carbon in soil at coniferous forest sites in southern Finland. Biogeochemistry, 29, 183–197. doi:10.1007/BF02186047.
Mäkipää, R., Häkkinen, M., Peltoniemi, M. & Muukkonen, P. (2008a). Monitoring changes in the carbon stock of forest soils—costs of different sampling protocols. Boreal Environment Research (in press).
Mäkipää, R., Lehtonen, A., & Peltoniemi, M. (2008b). Monitoring carbon stock changes in European forests using forest inventory data. In H. Dolman, et al. (Eds), The Continental-scale greenhouse gas balance of Europe (pp. 191–210). Berlin: Springer.
Mueller-Dombois, D., & Ellenberg, H. (1974). Aims and methods of vegetation ecology (547 p.). New York: Wiley.
Nakane, K. (1994). Modelling the soil carbon cycle of pine ecosystems. Ecological Bulletins, 43, 161–172.
Palmer, C. J., Smith, W. D., & Conkling, B. L. (2002). Development of a protocol for monitoring status and trends in forest soil carbon at a national level. Environmental Pollution, 116, S209–S219. doi:10.1016/S0269-7491(01)00253-6.
Palosuo, T., Liski, J., Trofymow, J. A., & Titus, B. D. (2005). Litter decomposition affected by climate and litter quality—testing the Yasso model with litterbag data from the Canadian intersite decomposition experiment. Ecological Modelling, 189, 183–198. doi:10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2005.03.006.
Peltoniemi, M. (2007). Country-scale carbon accounting of the vegetation and mineral soils of Finland. Dissertationes Forestales, 50, 46.
Peltoniemi, M., Mäkipää, R., Liski, J., & Tamminen, P. (2004). Changes in soil carbon with stand age—an evaluation of a modelling method with empirical data. Global Change Biology, 10, 2078–2091. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2004.00881.x.
Post, W., Emanuel, W. R., Zinke, P. J., & Stangenberger, A. G. (1982). Soil carbon pools and world life zones. Nature, 298, 156–159. doi:10.1038/298156a0.
R Foundation for Statistical Computing. (2006). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Retrieved from http://www.R-project.org.
Ribeiro, P. J. J., & Diggle, P. J. (2001). geoR: A package for geostatistical analysis. R-NEWS, 1, 14–18 (http://CRAN.R-project.org/doc/Rnews/).
SAS. (1999). The SAS system for Windows, version 8.01. SAS Institute, Cary, USA.
Smith, P. (2004). How long before a change in soil organic carbon can be detected? Global Change Biology, 10, 1878–1883. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2004.00854.x.
Ståhl, G., Boström, B., Lindkvist, H., Lindroth, A., Nilsson, J., & Olsson, M. (2004). Methodological options for quantifying changes in carbon pools in Swedish forests. Studia Forestalia Suecica, 214, 46.
Tamminen, P., & Derome, J. (2005). Temporal trends in chemical parameters of upland forest soils in southern Finland. Silva Fennica, 39, 313–330.
UNFCCC. (1992). United Nations framework convention on climate change. Retrieved from http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/conveng.pdf.
UNFCCC. (1998). Kyoto protocol to the United Nations framework convention on climate change. Retrieved from http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/kpeng.pdf.
UNFCCC. (2001). Matters relating to land use, land-use change and forestry. FCCC/CP/2001/L.11/Rev.1. Retrieved from http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/cop6secpart/crp03.pdf.
Webster, R., & Oliver, M. (2001). Geostatistics for environmental scientists (p. 286). New York: Wiley.
Wilding, L. P., Drees, L. R., & Nordt, L. C. (2000). Spatial variability: Enhancing the mean estimate of organic and inorganic carbon in a sampling unit. In R. Lal et al. (Eds), Assessment methods for soil carbon (pp. 69–86). London: Lewis.
Yoo, K., Amundson, R., Heimsath, A. M., & Dietrich, W. E. (2006). Spatial patterns of soil organic carbon on hillslopes: Integrating geomorphic processes and the biological C cycle. Geoderma, 130, 47–65. doi:10.1016/j.geoderma.2005.01.008.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Muukkonen, P., Häkkinen, M. & Mäkipää, R. Spatial variation in soil carbon in the organic layer of managed boreal forest soil—implications for sampling design. Environ Monit Assess 158, 67–76 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-008-0565-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-008-0565-2