Abstract
Abstract To develop sources of renewable energy and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increasing attention has been given to the extraction of forest biomass, especially in the form of harvest residues. However, increasing the removal of biomass, and hence nutrients, has raised concerns about the sustainability of site fertility and forest productivity. The environmental cost of harvesting belowground biomass is still not fully understood. The objectives of this study were to (i) estimate the stocks of belowground biomass that potentially can be collected; (ii) measure the nutrient (N, P, K, Ca, Mg) concentrations of the different root compartments (stumps, coarse and thin roots); and to (iii) quantify the biomass and nutrient exports under different scenarios, including harvests of above and belowground compartments. The study was carried out on Pinus pinaster stands located in south‐western France. Results showed that roots could be a significant fuelwood resource, particularly at forest clear cutting. Negative relationships between root diameter and root nutrient concentration were observed, independently of root function or tree age. Such relationships can be used to accurately simulate nutrient concentrations in roots as well as nutrient exports. Combining our original results on roots with previously published data on the aboveground compartments showed that nutrient losses were higher in canopy harvest scenarios than in root harvest scenarios. This was mainly due to high nutrient concentrations of needles. We concluded that stump and root harvest could be sustainable in our study context, conversely to foliage harvest. Because thin roots have higher nutrient concentrations than coarse roots and the proportion of thin roots increased with an increase in the distance from the tree, collecting roots only in the close vicinity of the stumps should limit nutrient exports (particularly N) without unnecessarily reducing fuelwood biomass.
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Claims 5
Claim · model-written summary
Root nutrient concentration decreases as root diameter increases in Pinus pinaster, independent of root function or tree age.
- Taxon
- Pinus pinaster
.jpg?width=60)
Pinus pinastert0 - Treatment
- root diametere0
- Outcome
- root nutrient concentratione0
- Direction
- decreaseinferrede0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
.jpg?width=500)
Verbatim
e0“Negative relationships between root diameter and root nutrient concentration were observed, independently of root function or tree age”
t0“Pinus pinaster”
Claim · model-written summary
Nutrient losses are higher under canopy harvest than under root harvest in Pinus pinaster.
- Taxon
- Pinus pinasterPinus pinastert0
- Treatment
- canopy harvest scenariose1
- Outcome
- nutrient lossese1
- Direction
- highere1
- Comparator
- root harvest scenariose1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“nutrient losses were higher in canopy harvest scenarios than in root harvest scenarios”
t0“Pinus pinaster”
Claim · model-written summary
Thin roots have higher nutrient concentrations than coarse roots in Pinus pinaster.
- Taxon
- Pinus pinasterPinus pinastert0
- Organ / stage
- thin rootse4
- Outcome
- nutrient concentrationse4
- Direction
- highere4
- Comparator
- coarse rootse4
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e4“Because thin roots have higher nutrient concentrations than coarse roots”
t0“Pinus pinaster”
Claim · model-written summary
Stump and root harvest could be sustainable in the study context, unlike foliage harvest.
- Taxon
- Pinus pinasterPinus pinastert0
- Outcome
- stump and root harvest could be sustainablee2
- Comparator
- foliage harveste2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e2“We concluded that stump and root harvest could be sustainable in our study context, conversely to foliage harvest”
t0“Pinus pinaster”
Claim · model-written summary
Collecting roots only close to stumps should limit nutrient exports, particularly N, without reducing fuelwood biomass.
- Taxon
- Pinus pinasterPinus pinastert0
- Treatment
- collecting roots only in the close vicinity of the stumpse3
- Outcome
- limit nutrient exportse3
- Qualifier
- without unnecessarily reducing fuelwood biomasse3
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e3“collecting roots only in the close vicinity of the stumps should limit nutrient exports (particularly N) without unnecessarily reducing fuelwood biomass”
t0“Pinus pinaster”