THE EFFECTS OF EXCLUSION OF BROWSING MOOSE ON ABOVE GROUND CARBON STOCKS IN EARLY SUCCESSIONAL STAGES IN BOREAL FORESTS

Abstract

Climate change can occur due to the rising of CO2 in the atmosphere. Understanding factors that can increase atmospheric CO2 is very important to decrease global temperature. There are many publications that investigate the effect of climate change and deforestation on above ground C stock. However few researches done on other factors that can change the amount of C stock. This study investigates the effect of moose browsing on above ground C stock in sucssetional boreal forests. Boreal forests are a habitat for different animals and plants. Studying the relationship of herbivory and plants used to investigate their interaction effect on ecosystem. The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of moose browsing on above ground biomass and C stock in boreal ecosystem. In this study data were collected from 15 browsed and unbrowsed recent clear-cut treatments in Norwegian boreal forests. The result indicated that even though, the deciduous species showed lower above ground biomass in the browsed treatment than the unbrowsed treatment, only rowan above ground biomass was significantly affected by moose browsing. Although Spruce and juniper showed higher above ground biomass in the browsed treatment, the interaction effect of treatment over year was not statistically significant. Moose browsing significantly affected the above ground C- stock in the study sites. Based on the result at the end of the study, the browsed treatment showed lower mean above ground C stock than the unbrowsed treatment. The current study confirmed that the presence of moose had negative impact on biomass of rowan and total above ground C-stock in Norwegian boreal forests. These findings show the importance of herbivory during forest C stocks management.