Production of Mass and Nutrient Content of Decaying Boles in Mature Deciduous Forest in Kwangnung Experimental Forest Station, Korea

In order to elucidate the characteristics of standing crop biomass, production and nutrient content of dead bole in mature ecosystem, we surveyed the dynamics of decaying bole of old-aged deciduous forest in 1993 and 2002 in Kwangnung Experimental Forest Station. In addition, we and estimated annual bole production, water content, wood density and nutrient content and compared the results with that of temperate ecosystem. Total dead wood biomass was estimated to be 5.6ton/ha in 1993 and 17.6ton/ha in 2002. Standing dead tree accounted for a total of 1.1ton/ha in 1993 and 4.8ton/ha in 2002, which was 20% and 27% of the sum of dead bole mass in 1993 and 2002, respectively. Annual production of bole biomass was 1.3 ton/ha/yr. These values fall into the low range of dead wood biomass for the mature temperate ecosystems. Tree species composing standing bole was mainly Quercus and Carpinus trees. This bole species composition resembles alive species composition of this forest. Water content of bole increased as positive logarithmically, but wood density of bole decreased as negative exponentially along with the progress of decay. N, P, Ca and Mg concentrations in decaying boles generally increased with decay, except for K. Annual nutrient input via dead bole is 1.6kg/ha/yr for N, 0.04 kg/ha/yr for P. 1.0 kg/ha/yr for K, 1.7kg/ha/yr for Ca and 0.3 kg/ha/yr for Mg, respectively.