Peatland Biogeochemistry And Watershed Hydrology ...

Peatland Biogeochemistry and Watershed Hydrology at the Marcell Experimental Forest

© 2011 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

Peatland Biogeochemistry and Watershed Hydrology at the Marcell Experimental Forest Edited by

Randall K. Kolka USDA Forest Service, MN, USA

Stephen D. Sebestyen USDA Forest Service, MN, USA

Elon S. Verry USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station

Kenneth N. Brooks University of Minnesota, MN, USA

Boca Raton London New York

CRC Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business


CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300 Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742 © 2011 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business No claim to original U.S. Government works Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4398-1425-3 (Ebook-PDF) This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and publishers have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication and apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any copyright material has not been acknowledged please write and let us know so we may rectify in any future reprint. Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, please access www.copyright.com (http://www.copyright.com/) or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration for a variety of users. For organizations that have been granted a photocopy license by the CCC, a separate system of payment has been arranged. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at http://www.taylorandfrancis.com and the CRC Press Web site at http://www.crcpress.com

Contents Foreword from the Research and Development Office of the Forest Service ................................................................................................. vii Foreword from a Scientific Research Perspective .............................................ix Foreword from a Watershed Management Perspective ................................ xiii Preface .................................................................................................................. xvii Editors ................................................................................................................... xix Contributors ......................................................................................................... xxi 1 Establishing the Marcell Experimental Forest: Threads in Time ........1 Elon S. Verry, Roger R. Bay, and Don H. Boelter 2 Long-Term Monitoring Sites and Trends at the Marcell Experimental Forest ..................................................................................... 15 Stephen D. Sebestyen, Carrie Dorrance, Donna M. Olson, Elon S. Verry, Randall K. Kolka, Art E. Elling, and Richard Kyllander 3 An Evolving Research Agenda at the Marcell Experimental Forest...... 73 Randall K. Kolka, Stephen D. Sebestyen, and John B. Bradford 4 Geology, Vegetation, and Hydrology of the S2 Bog at the MEF: 12,000 Years in Northern Minnesota ........................................................ 93 Elon S. Verry and Joannes Janssens 5 Physical Properties of Organic Soils ...................................................... 135 Elon S. Verry, Don H. Boelter, Juhani Päivänen, Dale S. Nichols, Tom Malterer, and Avi Gafni 6 Scaling Up Evapotranspiration Estimates from Process Studies to Watersheds .............................................................................................. 177 Kenneth N. Brooks, Shashi B. Verma, Joon Kim, and Elon S. Verry 7 Watershed Hydrology ................................................................................ 193 Elon S. Verry, Kenneth N. Brooks, Dale S. Nichols, Dawn R. Ferris, and Stephen D. Sebestyen 8 Element Cycling in Upland/Peatland Watersheds............................... 213 Noel Urban, Elon S. Verry, Steven Eisenreich, David F. Grigal, and Stephen D. Sebestyen

v © 2011 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

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9 Ecosystem Carbon Storage and Flux in Upland/Peatland Watersheds in Northern Minnesota ....................................................... 243 David F. Grigal, Peter C. Bates, and Randall K. Kolka 10 Carbon Emissions from Peatlands .......................................................... 297 Nancy B. Dise, Narasinha J. Shurpali, Peter Weishampel, Shashi B. Verma, Elon S. Verry, Eville Gorham, Patrick M. Crill, Robert C. Harriss, Cheryl A. Kelley, Joseph B. Yavitt, Kurt A. Smemo, Randall K. Kolka, Kelly Smith, Joon Kim, Robert J. Clement, Timothy J. Arkebauer, Karen B. Bartlett, David P. Billesbach, Scott D. Bridgham, Art E. Elling, Patricia A. Flebbe, Jennifer Y. King, Christopher S. Martens, Daniel I. Sebacher, Christopher J. Williams, and R. Kelman Wieder 11 Mercury Cycling in Peatland Watersheds ............................................. 349 Randall K. Kolka, Carl P.J. Mitchell, Jeffrey D. Jeremiason, Neal A. Hines, David F. Grigal, Daniel R. Engstrom, Jill K. Coleman-Wasik, Edward A. Nater, Edward B. Swain, Bruce A. Monson, Jacob A. Fleck, Brian Johnson, James E. Almendinger, Brian A. Branfireun, Patrick L. Brezonik, and James B. Cotner 12 Forest Management Practices and Silviculture .................................... 371 Donald A. Perala and Elon S. Verry 13 Hydrological Responses to Changes in Forest Cover on Uplands and Peatlands............................................................................................... 401 Stephen D. Sebestyen, Elon S. Verry, and Kenneth N. Brooks 14 Effects of Watershed Experiments on Water Chemistry at the Marcell Experimental Forest ....................................................................433 Stephen D. Sebestyen and Elon S. Verry 15 Multiple Resource and Hydrologic Models for Peatland–Upland Forests of the Northern Lake States........................................................ 459 Kenneth N. Brooks, Peter F. Ffolliott, D. Phillip Guertin, Shiang-Yue Lu, John L. Neiber, Steve R. Predmore, and Paul K. Barten


Preface The 50th Anniversary Symposium for the Marcell Experimental Forest (MEF) attracted more than 80 participants from locations across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Israel, and the Netherlands. Although some notable personalities in the history of the MEF were unable to attend, we are happy to report that generations of MEF researchers were there, including Roger Bay (emeritus, USDA Forest Service) who led the scoping effort in 1959 that shortly thereafter led to the establishment of the MEF. If Roger is one of the first MEF persons-of-merit, he is not the last, as exampled by the generation of current undergraduate and graduate students who took a respite from field work at the MEF to attend the symposium. The symposium event marked the initial presentation of the materials synthesized in this book. The planning had actually started decades earlier when Elon S. Verry, Eville Gorham (emeritus, University of Minnesota), Noel Urban (Michigan Tech University), Steve Eisenreich (Joint Research Centre European Commission), and others started discussions of a book based on the NASA and NSF work at the MEF in the 1980s. A looming 50th anniversary was the final impetus for us to reconsider a book. We have now spent more than two years actively working to scope the book, write chapters, convince others to write to contribute their expertise, coordinate an extensive and impressive group of reviewers, and revise and edit the volume that is now in front of you. By providing financial support for the 50th Anniversary Symposium, the USDA Forest Service, the Blandin Foundation, and the Itasca County Land Department contributed to the development and publication of this book. The 15 chapters in this book synthesize five decades of research, hundreds of research publications, dozens of graduate theses, and even some previously unpublished studies. The depth and breadth of long-term studies on hydrology, biogeochemistry, ecology, and forest management on peatland watersheds at the MEF are remarkable. Research at the MEF has been at the forefront of many of the disciplines and we are proud to present a synthesis of research for the MEF. The contents of this book are largely focused on landscapes that include peatlands, lakes, and uplands. The topics span pioneering research on hydrology during the 1960s to the innovative studies of atmospheric deposition (1970s); nutrient cycles including carbon and nitrogen (early 1980s); methane emissions (mid-1980s); mercury deposition (1990s); controls on methylmercury production (2000s); and landscape-level carbon storage and cycling (2000s). With the continuation of our existing long-term measurements, initiation of new monitoring programs, and plans for unprecedented studies on climate change advancing, the prospects for future research at the MEF are bright. xvii © 2011 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

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As with any large project that spans decades and hundreds of participants, we unfortunately did not have space or time to include every reference or research finding in this book. We apologize to anyone whose work and ideas may have been inadvertently overlooked. We appreciate the contributions of every scientist, graduate student, technician, student worker, volunteer, neighbor, and visitor who has contributed to the success of the MEF! We thank Ann Bartuska, Michael Rains, Nigel Roulet, and Dale Higgins for writing forewords. We gratefully acknowledge the numerous peer-reviewers who provided thoughtful and informed reviews—the chapters have greatly improved. We also wish to acknowledge our departed colleagues, some of whom have recently passed away, who may not be reflected in the author list of the book despite their tremendous contributions to the MEF research program. We thank Clara Schreiber for her invaluable typing and editorial assistance, Marty Jones for his editorial review, Susan Wright (USDA Forest Service) for publication support, and Tim Eaton and Kari Finkler of Eaton and Associates Design Company for graphical support. Finally, we wish to acknowledge the Forest Service technicians who are largely responsible for the long-term data collection. They have also contributed to every research project that has been completed at the MEF. Their collective efforts exceed the sum of their individual contributions; our research and the MEF are the beneficiaries of their commitment and diligence. Randall K. Kolka USDA Forest Service, Grand Rapids, Minnesota Stephen D. Sebestyen USDA Forest Service, Grand Rapids, Minnesota Elon S. Verry USDA Forest Service, Grand Rapids, Minnesota Kenneth N. Brooks University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota


Editors Dr. Randall K. Kolka received his BS in soil science from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and his MS and PhD in soil science with minors in water resources and forest resources from the University of Minnesota. Following the completion of his PhD in 1996, he worked as a research soil scientist with the USDA Forest Service’s Southern Research Station on the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, where he conducted research on a multidisciplinary riparian/wetland restoration project. In 1998, he became an assistant professor of forest hydrology and watershed management in the Department of Forestry at the University of Kentucky. In 2002, he became team leader and research soil scientist with the USDA Forest Service’s Northern Research Station in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Currently, he leads a team of scientists addressing the ecology and management of riparian, wetland, and aquatic ecosystems. Dr. Kolka’s primary research interests are in both terrestrial and aquatic systems, where he studies water, nutrient, carbon, and mercury storage, cycling, and transport and the effects that forest management, land use change, and climate change have on these processes. He is an adjunct faculty member at five universities, was formerly an associate editor for the journal Wetlands, and has published over 100 scientific articles in his career. Dr. Stephen D. Sebestyen is a catchment scientist whose research focuses on how hydrological and biogeochemical processes interact in ecosystems. He received his BS from Susquehanna University, his MS from Cornell University, and his PhD from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. He started as a research hydrologist with the Northern Research Station of the USDA Forest Service in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, in 2007, and became the third hydrologist to follow Roger Bay and Elon S. Verry on the Marcell Experimental Forest project. He researches the effects of nitrogen pollution on ecosystem functions, carbon cycling, sources of Hg in the landscape, understanding how climate variability affects hydrological processes in forests, and quantifying the effects of landscape disturbance on yields of water and solutes from ecosystems across a range of settings in the United States and abroad. He is adjunct faculty at the University of Minnesota and Bemidji State University. Dr. Elon S. Verry spent 37 years as a research hydrologist and project leader with the North Central Forest Experiment Station in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, focusing on peatland hydrology and ecology, watershed management, watershed processes (physical and chemical), atmospheric chemistry, riparian forest ecology and management, and stream geomorphology. xix © 2011 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

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He received his BS in forest management and his MS in water resources from the University of Illinois, and his PhD in earth resources from Colorado State University. He has published over 100 scientific articles, book chapters, and a previous book on riparian management. Since “retirement” in 2004, he provides stream restoration services and workshops for Ellen River Partners. Dr. Kenneth N. Brooks is a professor at the Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, St. Paul. He received his BS in range science and watershed management from Utah State University and his MS and PhD in watershed management from the University of Arizona. Dr. Brooks teaches and conducts research in watershed management as well as forest and wetland hydrology and has authored/coauthored over 100 publications and five books, including three editions of the textbook Hydrology and the Management of Watersheds. He is certified as a professional hydrologist by the American Institute of Hydrology.


Contributors James E. Almendinger St. Croix Watershed Research Station Science Museum of Minnesota Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota Timothy J. Arkebauer Department of Agronomy and Horticulture University of Nebraska Lincoln, Nebraska Paul K. Barten Department of Natural Resources Conservation University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachusetts Karen B. Bartlett Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space University of New Hampshire Durham, New Hampshire Peter C. Bates Department of Geosciences and Natural Resources Western Carolina University Cullowhee, North Carolina Roger R. Bay Pacific Southwest Research Station USDA Forest Service Albany, California David P. Billesbach Department of Biological Systems Engineering University of Nebraska Lincoln, Nebraska

Don H. Boelter Northern Research Station USDA Forest Service Grand Rapids, Minnesota John B. Bradford Northern Research Station USDA Forest Service Grand Rapids, Minnesota Brian A. Branfireun Department of Biology University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada Patrick L. Brezonik Department of Civil Engineering University of Minnesota Minneapolis, Minnesota Scott D. Bridgham Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon Kenneth N. Brooks Department of Forest Resources University of Minnesota St. Paul, Minnesota Robert J. Clement School of Geosciences The University of Edinburgh Edinburgh, United Kingdom Jill K. Coleman-Wasik Water Resources Center University of Minnesota St. Paul, Minnesota xxi


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James B. Cotner Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior University of Minnesota St. Paul, Minnesota Patrick M. Crill Department of Geology and Geochemistry Stockholm University Stockholm, Sweden Nancy B. Dise Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester, United Kingdom Carrie Dorrance Northern Research Station USDA Forest Service Grand Rapids, Minnesota Steven Eisenreich Joint Research Centre European Commission Brussels, Belgium Art E. Elling Northern Research Station USDA Forest Service Grand Rapids, Minnesota Daniel R. Engstrom St. Croix Watershed Research Station Science Museum of Minnesota Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota Dawn R. Ferris Soil Science Society of America Lexington, Ohio © 2011 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

Contributors

Peter F. Ffolliott School of Natural Resources University of Arizona Tucson, Arizona Patricia A. Flebbe Pacific Southwest Region USDA Forest Service Vallejo, California Jacob A. Fleck Department of Soil, Water, and Climate University of Minnesota St. Paul, Minnesota Avi Gafni Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael Jewish National Fund Makkabim, Israel Eville Gorham Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior University of Minnesota St. Paul, Minnesota David F. Grigal Department of Soil, Water, and Climate University of Minnesota St. Paul, Minnesota D. Phillip Guertin School of Natural Resources University of Arizona Tucson, Arizona Robert C. Harriss Houston Advanced Research Center The Woodlands, Texas Neal A. Hines Barr Engineering Minneapolis, Minnesota

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Joannes Janssens Lambda-Max Ecological Research Minneapolis, Minnesota Jeffrey D. Jeremiason Gustavus Adolphus University St. Peter, Minnesota Brian Johnson Metropolitan Council St. Paul, Minnesota Cheryl A. Kelley Department of Geological Sciences University of Missouri Columbia, Missouri Joon Kim Global Environment Laboratory Yonsei University Seoul, Korea Jennifer Y. King Department of Geography University of California Santa Barbara, California Randall K. Kolka Northern Research Station USDA Forest Service Grand Rapids, Minnesota Richard Kyllander Northern Research Station USDA Forest Service Grand Rapids, Minnesota Shiang-Yue Lu Taiwan Forestry Research Institute Taipei, Taiwan Tom Malterer Natural Resources Research Institute University of Minnesota Duluth, Minnesota © 2011 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

Christopher S. Martens Department of Marine Sciences The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, North Carolina Carl P. J. Mitchell Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences University of Toronto Scarborough Toronto, Ontario, Canada Bruce A. Monson Minnesota Pollution Control Agency St. Paul, Minnesota Edward A. Nater Department of Soil, Water, and Climate University of Minnesota St. Paul, Minnesota John L. Neiber Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering University of Minnesota St. Paul, Minnesota Dale S. Nichols Northern Research Station USDA Forest Service Grand Rapids, Minnesota Donna M. Olson Northern Research Station USDA Forest Service Grand Rapids, Minnesota Juhani Päivänen Department of Forest Ecology University of Helsinki Helsinki, Finland

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Donald A. Perala Northern Research Station USDA Forest Service Grand Rapids, Minnesota Steve R. Predmore Missouri Basin River Forecast Center National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Omaha, Nebraska Daniel I. Sebacher Atmospheric Sciences Division NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, Virginia Stephen D. Sebestyen Northern Research Station USDA Forest Service Grand Rapids, Minnesota Narasinha J. Shurpali Department of Environmental Science University of Eastern Finland Kuopio, Finland Kurt A. Smemo The Holden Arboretum Kirtland, Ohio Kelly Smith Carlton County Soil and Water Conservation District Carlton, Minnesota Edward B. Swain Minnesota Pollution Control Agency St. Paul, Minnesota


Contributors

Noel Urban Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Michigan Technological University Houghton, Michigan Shashi B. Verma School of Natural Resources University of Nebraska Lincoln, Nebraska Elon S. Verry Northern Research Station USDA Forest Service Grand Rapids, Minnesota Peter Weishampel Department of Natural Resources Northland College Ashland, Wisconsin R. Kelman Wieder Department of Biology Villanova University Villanova, Pennsylvania Christopher J. Williams Department of Earth and Environment Franklin and Marshall College Lancaster, Pennsylvania Joseph B. Yavitt Department of Natural Resources Cornell University Ithaca, New York