Nutrient turnover in forest floors of interior Alaska

In this study, we examined the loss of selected chemical elements, mass, and energy from decomposing quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.), paper birch (Betula papyrifera Marsh.), and alder (Alnus\ud crispa subsp. sinuata (Regel) Hult.) in upland aspen and birch stands near Fairbanks, Alaska. The following summary of the work,\ud much of which was conducted before funding of the present project, will appear this year as a short paper in Ecology. The paper is\ud included as part of this report because it describes experimental site locations and field and laboratory methods used in conducting this study. After the paper was prepared, additional sets of samples\ud were collected, which extended the duration of the study to 1,325 days. Regression analysis has now been conducted on all parameters originally discussed in the project proposal. These results, with the exception of those for Fe, Mn, Zn, and ash are summarized in Table 1. Further\ud examination of data for the later constituents is necessary before submitting these results. The equations relating energy loss to weight loss have also been extended to include data from the 1,325-day samples. Graphical presentation of this data will be available shortly