Carbon emissions from stumps vary by species but not sprouting in a temperate hardwood forest.

Cut stumps can be temporary hot spots of carbon emissions due to connections to decaying root systems. Drivers of variation in stump decomposition have yet to be clearly identified, including interactions with stump sprouting, an important regeneration pathway after harvest in temperate deciduous forests. The aim of this study was to identify the effects of sprouting relative to other abiotic and biotic factors on carbon emissions from cut stumps. We measured carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) flux from the surface of cut stumps 0-4 years following a canopy gap harvest in an upland mixed-oak forest in the southern Appalachians, U.S. Stumps were a CO2 source for all years with flux values ranging from 0.14 to 227.5 μmol CO2 m-2 s-1. Instantaneous CH4 flux was largely positive (81 %) and ranged from -0.32 to 201.6 nmol CH4 m-2 s-1. Sprouting did not affect CO2 or CH4 flux despite decreasing stump surface temperature and increasing wood moisture. Both CO2 and CH4 flux were stable over time since harvest and differed most strongly by genus. Using an average annual C-CO2 emission rate of 2.6 kg C m-2 of stump surface yr-1 and preharvest basal area (42 m2 ha-1), the annual C-CO2 loss from stumps was estimated to be 109 kg C ha-1 yr-1 (16.6 and 800.2 kg C ha-1 yr-1 95CI) near-term to gap harvest. Understanding factors influencing the variability in carbon emissions from stump decomposition is critical as we test sustainable forest management approaches that optimize climate change adaptation and mitigation.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Science of the Total Environment

• Publication date

  2025-03-01

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.179059PMID 40054242
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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