Effects of management thinning on CO2 exchange by a plantation oak woodland in south-eastern England

Forest thinning, which removes some individual trees from a forest stand at intermediate stages of the rotation, is commonly used as a silvicultural technique and is a management practice that can substantially alter both forest canopy structure and carbon storage. Whilst a proportion of the standing biomass is removed through harvested timber, thinning also removes some of the photosynthetic leaf area and introduces a large pulse of woody residue (brash) to the soil surface, which potentially can alter the balance of autotrophic and heterotrophic respiration. Using a combination of eddy covariance (EC) and aerial light detection and ranging (lidar) data, this study investigated the effects of management thinning on the carbon balance and canopy structure in a commercially managed oak plantation in the south-east of England. Whilst thinning had a large effect on the canopy structure, increasing canopy complexity and gap fraction, the effects of thinning on the carbon balance were not as evident. In the first year post thinning, the peak summer photosynthetic rate was unaffected by the thinning, suggesting that the better illuminated ground vegetation and shrub layer compensated for the removed trees. Peak summer photosynthetic rate was reduced in the thinned area between 2009 and 2011, but there was no significant difference between sectors. Ecosystem respiration fluxes increased in the thinned relative to the unthinned area in the post-thinning phase.