Exploring the role of deadwood in the forest soil carbon cycle.

This will be the first study of its kind the forest carbon (C) cycle across different UK woodland types; and how to quantify the role of deadwood in environmental and management factors control the rate of deadwood supply, storage and loss. Forest Research need data on the deadwood C cycle to provide evidence to show others how to best manage forests to combat climate change, as forests remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and store it biomass, deadwood and soil. Deadwood provides food for decomposer organisms, who fix some C in their biomass, and release some CO2 back to the atmosphere and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to water flowing in to soils when it rains. This project will provide essential information about how much C is stored within deadwood in UK forests, and how much is lost to the atmosphere as CO2 or transferred as DOC to the soil C store. It will evaluate how the balance between C storage and loss from deadwood varies across the UK due to different environmental conditions, like tree type, soil type, climate and atmospheric pollution. Process knowledge gained will be used to develop a deadwood module for a forest carbon model. This model will be used to further explore how the deadwood C cycle works and how this could change as management and environmental conditions change. Research from this project will help Forest Research explain to forest managers how they can best manage deadwood to combat climate change