Mass and nutrient content of decaying boles in an Engelmann spruce- subalpine fir forest, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Dead hole wood in an old-growth Picea engelmannii-Abies lasiocarpa forest was classified into decay classes. Biomass of dead boles was 70 Mg/ha, about half as large as aboveground live biomass in these forests. Net accumulation of N, P, Ca and Na occurred with increasing decay. The N:P ratio varied little with decay, approaching a value of 20 in the most decayed wood. Loss of K during bole decay exceeded in the rate of weight loss, whereas Mg loss followed weight loss. Total pools of nutrients in dead boles and (parentheses) amount of nutrients stored in dead boles as a percentage of total above- and below-ground living, forest floor, and dead wood nutrients were 92.2 kg N/ha (7%), 4.89 kg P/ha (5%), 67.9 kg K/ha (16%), 156.6 kg Ca/ha (12%), 28.9 kg Mg/ha (17%), and 0.74 kg Na/ha (9%). Storage of relatively high amounts of Ca in dead wood and of most natural forests indicates that management could have a significant effect on its availability in the long term. -from Authors