Principle - CCFM 2.0 Maintenance and enhancement of Forest Ecosystem Condition and Productivity.

Criterion- CIFOR 2.1 Ecosystem Function is Maintained

Indicator – CIFOR 2.4.6 The status of decomposition and nutrient shows no significant change

Box B: Definition:

"Dead organic matter is essential to the functioning of forest soils not only as a complex habitat and resource base for a diverse biota, but also because it maintains the physical and chemical integrity of the system. Diverse litter resource types from species with different composition rates regulate carbon and nutrient release and leaf litter cover protects the soil from wind and rain erosion, and contributes to the regulation of soil moisture." CIFOR P. 200.

"There is considerable research to show the importance of both standing and down coarse woody debris (CWD) for maintenance of biodiversity. Such material is important for denning sites, decomposition, feeding areas, and thermal and drought refuges, among other values." Woodley and Forbes, 1997. pp. 19-20.

Nutrient cycles are linked to decomposition of dead organic matter in the CIFOR definition. The determination of no significant change requires establishment of a base line and standards for deviation from that base line as part of the indicator.

Box D: Applicability to Different Landowners. Explain any differences:

Costs of measuring are high and small landowners may not afford it.

GFE: 2.0

Notes:

This indicator if adequately measured is both diagnostic (shows a deviation from significant) and predictive (indicates a trend).

Box I: Underlying Concepts:

Nutrient cycles are essential ecosystem processes and the linkages to decomposition are complex and important. However the definition is not precise because it calls for "significant change". To do so requires the establishment of base values and the amount of deviation from the base values to be considered "significant". Such data is expensive and time-consuming to acquire and has only been done so on a limited number of test sites in North America. It would require a massive effort to establish such standards for a variety of vegetation types. Also nutrient and decomposition cycles may operate in time periods well beyond that covered in any sort of assessment. The definition relates better to moist or wet deciduous forests rather than the mainly dry conifer forests of the study area.

The carbon cycle is an essential ecosystem processes and micro-organisms are especially important in warm, moist environments. Micro-organisms are less important in cold and/or dry environments. In the study area, fire is an important agent in the carbon and other cycles. "Formerly, recurrent low intensity fires regulated competition for resources (e.g., water and nutrients) by eliminating fire-intolerant trees… Frequent underburning also prevented excess accumulation of carbon and nutrients in woody biomass …the balance between fire and biological decomposition in regulating carbon accumulations has been disrupted." (from Harvey, 1994b.)

Insects, animals, saprophytes, pathogens and fire all play important roles in nutrient cycles. As such changes in historical amounts and distributions of such factors provide proxy indicators of nutrient cycles and may be more easily estimated or measured

Box J: Relevance to Sustainable/Unsustainable Management:

Nutrient cycling is an essential process but the indicator is difficult to measure over large areas.

Box K: Measurement Methods:

Ecosystem cycles or processes are generally difficult to measure directly and often some indicator of structure is used as a proxy. In this instance, a proxy may be the amount of little, duff, plant residues and large woody debris present by forest type. Such values would have to be set for various forest types, for example: Dry forests under a historical fire regime of frequent low intensity fires had relatively little dead organic matter present. Other forest types may have large amounts depending on climate and the resulting fire regime.

Box L: Data Required:

N/A

Box M: Data Used for the North American Test:

N/A

Box N: Example Results:

N/A

Box O: Assessing the Practicality :

Direct measurement for all vegetation types is very costly and time-consuming. Examples include the classic Hubbard Brook experiments where site conditions allowed measurement of nutrients lost in runoff. The Hubbard Brook conditions of soil over an impermeable substrate allowed the measurement of nutrients in the system. Such conditions are rarely replicated in North America so precise measurements are very difficult.

There are proxies to estimate nutrient cycles and one of the more applicable ones is to establish levels of coarse woody material on a specific forest type.

Box P: Assessing the Information Value :

Assessment of coarse woody debris and snags provides information to managers not only on this indicator of nutrient cycling but additional information on wildlife species habitats.

Box Q: Overall assessment:

The intent of the indicator can be met by structural indicators such as CCFM 1.1.1 and 1.1.2

Box R: Did you rewrite or revise to a new indicator. If so what?

Move to GFE 2.0.

Box S: References:

• Bormann, F.H., G.E. Likens, T.G. Siccama, R.S. Pierce, and J.S. Eaton. 1974. The Export of Nutrients and Recovery of Stable Conditions Following Defoestation at Hubbard Brook. Ecological Monographs 44:255-277.
• Clark, L.R., and R. N. Sampson. 1995 Forest Ecosystem Health in the Inland Northwest: a science and policy reader. Forest Policy Center, American Forests. Washington D. C. 37 p.
• Harvey, A.E. 1994b. Interactions Between Forest Health and the Carbon Cycle: Inland Northwest American and Global Issues. Managing Forest to Meet Peoples’ Needs, Proceeding of the 1994 Society of American Foresters/Canadian Institute of Forestry Convention. SAF publication 95-02. Society of American Foresters, Bethesda, Md. P. 86-91
• Harvey, A., M. Jurgensen, M. Larson, and R. Graham. 1987. Decaying organic materials and soil quality in the inland Northwest: a management opportunity. General Technical Report INT-225. USDA Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station. Ogden, Utah. 15 p.
• Harvey, A. E. and others. 1994. Biotic and abiotic processes in eastside ecosystems: the effects of management on soil properties, processes, and productivity. General Technical Report PNW-GTR-323. Portland, Oregon. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 71 p.
• Kimmins, J.P. 1996. Importance of Soil and Role of Ecosystem Disturbance for Sustained Productivity of Cool Temperate and Boreal Forests. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 60:1643-1654.
• Likens, G.E., F.H. Bormann, R.S. Pierce, and W.A. Reiners. 1978. Recovery of a Deforested Ecosystem. Science 199:492-496.
• Reiners, W.A. 1992. Twenty Years of Ecosystem Reorganization Following Experimental Deforestation and Regrowth Suppression. Ecological Monographs, Vol. 62(4). Pp. 503-523
• Woodley, S. and G. Forbes (eds.). 1997. Forest Management Guidlines to Protect Native Biodiversity in the Fundy Model Forest. Greater Fundy Ecosystem Research Group. Published by the New Brunswick Co-operative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of New Brunswick. 36 p

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