Carbon pool of coarse woody debris (cwd) in European boreal forests
Coarse woody debris is one of the most important components of ecosystems crucial for biodiversity, carbon and nutrient cycling, energy flows and soil forming processes. In view of a global climate change carbon storage in coarse woody debris should be evaluated. For the CWD inventory we use method of transects. The results characterize carbon (C) pool of coarse woody debris (CWD) from 607 sample plots established of Leningrad, Novgorod and Pskov regions as well as in southern and northern Finland in managed forests dominated by main boreal tree species. The values of CWD C pool and balance between fluxes in (stand mortality) and out (CWD decomposition) of CWD were calculated for managed forests of different forest type and being at different succession stage. The impact of such factors as vegetation zone, forest management intensity, dominating tree species, site class (bonitet), age group, forest type, site class, successional stage on the CWD C pools and fluxes was estimated. The CWD C stores, C flux connected with stand mortality and C flux connected with CWD decomposition ranging from 0 to 107.4 Mg C ha <sup>–1</sup>; 0 to 2.6 Mg C ha <sup>–1</sup> yr <sup>–1</sup> and 0 to 1.9 Mg C ha <sup>–1</sup> yr <sup>–1</sup>, respectively. In the middle and southern forests, the carbon stores of coarse woody debris depended on the forest management intensity.