Our project is based primarily in the forests and tundra above the Abisko Scientific Research Station in Swedish Lapland. Here, we have set up plots and experiments to understand the role of trees, shrubs and their fungi on soil carbon cycling.
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We have used a common forestry and horticulture practice called girdling (often called ring-barking) on small, replicated plots. Cutting a ring around the bark deep enough to stop sugars travelling through the tree or shrub phloem to the roots allows us to understand the role of these important species on soil carbon cycling. Eventually the crown dies, but these birch trees often re-sprout from near the base of the stem – below the ring-barked section – and the forests rebound very quickly. Under these girdled trees we can measure a number of soil processes, for example:
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