TITLE:
A Simple Geospatial Nutrient Budget Model for Assessing Forest Harvest Sustainability across Nova Scotia, Canada
AUTHORS:
Kevin Keys, Joshua D. Noseworthy, Jae Ogilvie, David L. Burton, Paul A. Arp
KEYWORDS:
Forest Nutrition Management, Biomass Harvesting, Sustainable Forest Management, Forest Plantation Management
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Forestry,
Vol.6 No.5,
September
29,
2016
ABSTRACT: A geospatial GIS-linked spreadsheet model (Nutrient Budget Model—Nova Scotia: NBM-NS)
was developed for Nova Scotia to assess the long-term sustainability of forest
harvest scenarios as constrained by primary nutrient inputs and outputs due to
atmospheric deposition, soil weathering, and leaching. Harvest scenarios refer
to user-defined stand-specific removal rates of bole wood, bark, branches, and
foliage, based on current or projected forest inventories. These scenarios are
evaluated within the context of existing data layers for current climate (mean
annual precipitation and air temperatures), atmospheric deposition (N, S, Ca,
Mg, K), and soil/substrate types, supplemented by species-specific look-up
tables containing expected biomass fractions and nutrient concentrations. This
article introduces this model to assess relative site quality and limiting
nutrients for red spruce and sugar maple across Nova Scotia. This is followed
by an output comparison involving 25 spruce plantations whereby NBM-NS determinations
derived using “default” soil survey data are compared with those derived using
plantation-specific soil data. Model output shows that
(i) Ca and N are the main growth-limiting nutrients across Nova Scotia, (ii)
currently projected plantation yields are generally not sustainable on sites
underlain by slowly weathering soils, (iii) current soil base cation contents
are generally lower than what is reported in historic soil survey reports, and
(iv) model results are expected to vary within the context of changing climate,
acid deposition levels, and data accuracy.