Mass and Nutrient Loss in Decomposing Hardwood Boles on Watershed 1 at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, 1990 - present

In 1990-1991 segments of boles from felled sugar maple (Acer
saccharum), yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis) and American beech
(Fagus grandifolia) trees were placed in the field to study the rate
of decomposition and nutrient loss (or gain) over time. The segments
incubated in the field, ranging from 0.5-1.3 meters in length, were
paired with fresh segments from the same trees. The fresh segments
were taken to the lab shortly after felling, dried, weighed and
subsampled. Fresh samples of wood and bark were collected separately.
Incubated bole segments were collected in 1993 (T1), 1997 (T2), 2001
(T3), 2007 (T4) and 2015/2016 (T5). The whole bole segments were
transported to the lab, measured, dried and weighed to determine mass
loss. Subsamples of the bole wood and bark were collected for chemical
analysis, including C, N, H, Ca, Mg, K, Si, Al, Pb, Zn, Mn and Fe.
Chemical analyses were conducted concurrently on the fresh (T0) and
incubated samples. This data set includes the masses of the fresh and
incubated boles along with the concentrations of the chemical
analytes. Element pools in the boles can be calculated by multiplying
the concentrations by the mass values. This data set includes chemical
data for samples collected in 1993, 2001, and 2007 and their paired
fresh samples. Samples from 1997 were measured for mass, but
inadvertently discarded prior to chemical analysis. These data were gathered as part of the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study
(HBES). The HBES is a collaborative effort at the Hubbard Brook
Experimental Forest, which is operated and maintained by the USDA
Forest Service, Northern Research Station.