Prospect Hill Forest Plots at Harvard Forest 2013

Northern temperate forests function as an important carbon sink in the global carbon budget. Eddy covariance and plot-based measurements indicate that the Harvard Forest carbon sink is substantial and that the rate of carbon sequestration has increased over the past 20 years. A synthesis effort is underway to better understand how forest development, response to disturbance, and dominant tree species drive the patterns and mechanisms of forest carbon dynamics at the Harvard Forest. The goal of this project is to sample and analyze forest carbon stocks and dynamics across a suite of permanent plots established in 1937 and re-measured in 1992 in order to understand how and why forest carbon stocks have changed between 1937 and 2013. Data from this suite of plots will give spatial and temporal context to a synthesis of detailed, site-specific permanent forest plot studies. Other goals, such as vegetation biodiversity, and a more detailed study of root patterns in soils and belowground carbon distribution, are of strong interest but not addressed in detail in this sampling effort.