Chen, Hua; Harmon, M. E. 1992. Dynamic study of coarse woody debris in temperate forest ecosystems. Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology. 3(2): 99-104.
In this paper, tree mortality, coarse woody debris(CWD)storage, its decomposition rateand role in nutrient cyclings in two temperate forest ecosystems of Changbai MountainNatural Reserve of China and Andrews Experimental Forests of USA were studied. Re-sults show that CWD is an important component in temperate natural forest ecosystems.Its functional importance varies with forest types and decreases from coniferous forestto mixed forest. A primary role of CWD in nutrient cyclings within forest may be toretain nutrients and stabilize ecosystem following major natural disturbances. Globalestimation of carbon stored in detritus should include CWD in future, otherwise, it ispossible to underestimate 2 —16 x 10t3kg of global carbon storage in forest detritus, orrelative error in system is 2 —10%.
Key words Coarse woody debris, Tree mortality, Decomposition rate, Nutrient storage,Carbon storage, Forest detritus.