OPTMix is one of the European site chosen for the ERA-NET SUMFOREST REFORM (REsilience of FORest Mixtures) project supervised by Quentin Ponette (professor at the Catholic University of Louvain). The aim of this REFORM project is to develop silvicultural prescriptions for mixed species stands that are highly resistant and resilient to biotic and abiotic disturbances in the future. As part of WP4 dealing with the long term provision of ecosystem services, the present sub-project focuses on the impacts of tree species composition on soil organic carbon storage. Therefore, soil samples are collected, and for OPTMix this is done by Benjamin Willems and Richard Osei, from the Catholic University of Louvain at the end of September. They use a combined triplet – transect approach across Europe for a set of contrasting two species mixtures. The specific objectives of this research are:
(i) to compare the soil organic C stocks (forest floor and mineral soil down to 40 cm) under pure and mixed stands;
(ii) to quantifiy the effects of species identity and mixing on the soil organic C partitioning;
(iii) to test for a possible site effect or (site×mixing) interaction on the above processes.
This work is complementary to the post-doc of Céline Pradier starting on December 2017 at irstea Nogent-sur-Vernisson, who will study the carbon pool on OPTMix and compare above and below-ground carbon pools in pure and mixed oak-pine stands.
Soil sampling from litter down to 40 cm deep (Richard Osei, PhD at the Catholic University of Louvain)
Measurement of the soil bulk density using small glass marbles (Benjamin Willems, technician at Catholic University of Louvain)
