Windthrows, insect infestations, and wildfires are among the most important disturbances in forest ecosystems, and climate change is projected to increase their frequency and severity. In order to better understand the overall response of forests to disturbances, it is key to study how different disturbances affect carbon and nitrogen fluxes and stocks. Disturbance type, scale and intensity, along with post-disturbance succession all influence how the soil organic matter pool responds to and recovers following disturbances.
This session brings together current knowledge on 1) how disturbances affect fluxes, forms, and stocks of soil carbon and nitrogen, 2) how soil carbon and nitrogen pools develop/recover over the course of forest succession, and 3) how these pools behave under deforestation. Moreover, fire effects on soil geochemical processes will be presented.