{"id":{"repo_id":"montana-tech","oai_identifier":"oai:scholarworks.umt.edu:etd-1189"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/montana-tech/oai:scholarworks.umt.edu:etd-1189","repository":{"repo_id":"montana-tech","name":"Montana Technology","base_url":"https://scholarworks.umt.edu/do/oai/"},"display":{"title":"Carbon Storage in Old-Growth Western Larch (Larix occidentalis) Forests of Western Montana","abstract":"Over the last 30 years, the structural development of western old-growth ecosystems has been of great interest in ecological research. As the loss of historical forested acreage in western Montana became more widely recognized, the preservation of frequent-fire old-growth stands became a focus of forest management. And, although old-growth studies are commonly found in the literature, few studies focus on long-term carbon (C) storage associated with interior old-growth. This limited understanding of the C storage capacity and patterns in old-growth forests of western Montana leaves little ability to evaluate the role of old-growth forests in ecosystem level C storage capacity. Further, there is a disconnect between old-growth definitions and old-growth management. Forest Service definitions for interior old-growth ecosystems inadequately describe the structure, composition, and function of these ecosystems, and definitions applied from the Pacific Northwest do not capture the unique qualities of old-growth of the Northern Rockies. In this thesis, I first present a review of existing literature on definitions and characteristics of old-growth ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest and contrast these with old-growth forests of the Northern Rockies. In the second chapter, I present studies undertaken to generate empiric data on C storage in old-growth forests of this region. Specifically, studies were conducted to compare ecosystem C of old-growth western larch (Larix occidentalis) stands to that of paired 30-40 year old second growth stands in western Montana. Old-growth forests were found to store nearly three times more C than second growth forests, with most of the difference coming from C stored in the overstory. Finally, the third chapter describes a web-based plant guide that simplifies the challenge of plant identification by eliminating the use of technical vocabulary, focusing instead on visually recognizable plant characters and providing students with a more user-friendly means of identifying specimens and obtaining species-specific information.","abstract_html":"Over the last 30 years, the structural development of western old-growth ecosystems has been of great interest in ecological research. As the loss of historical forested acreage in western Montana became more widely recognized, the preservation of frequent-fire old-growth stands became a focus of forest management. And, although old-growth studies are commonly found in the literature, few studies focus on long-term carbon (C) storage associated with interior old-growth. This limited understanding of the C storage capacity and patterns in old-growth forests of western Montana leaves little ability to evaluate the role of old-growth forests in ecosystem level C storage capacity. Further, there is a disconnect between old-growth definitions and old-growth management. Forest Service definitions for interior old-growth ecosystems inadequately describe the structure, composition, and function of these ecosystems, and definitions applied from the Pacific Northwest do not capture the unique qualities of old-growth of the Northern Rockies. In this thesis, I first present a review of existing literature on definitions and characteristics of old-growth ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest and contrast these with old-growth forests of the Northern Rockies. In the second chapter, I present studies undertaken to generate empiric data on C storage in old-growth forests of this region. Specifically, studies were conducted to compare ecosystem C of old-growth western larch (Larix occidentalis) stands to that of paired 30-40 year old second growth stands in western Montana. Old-growth forests were found to store nearly three times more C than second growth forests, with most of the difference coming from C stored in the overstory. Finally, the third chapter describes a web-based plant guide that simplifies the challenge of plant identification by eliminating the use of technical vocabulary, focusing instead on visually recognizable plant characters and providing students with a more user-friendly means of identifying specimens and obtaining species-specific information.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Bisbing, Sarah M"],"institution":"University of Montana","degree_name":"Master of Science (MS)","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2008,"date_issued":"2008-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2008-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:12:42Z","subjects":["carbon storage","forest floor carbon","interior old-growth","Montana forests","Montana old-growth","old-growth definitions","old-growth forests","second growth forests","total ecosystem carbon","western larch"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/170","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Bisbing, Sarah M"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["University of Montana"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis - Campus Access Only"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science (MS)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["carbon storage","forest floor carbon","interior old-growth","Montana forests","Montana old-growth","old-growth definitions","old-growth forests","second growth forests","total ecosystem carbon","western larch"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/170"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Over the last 30 years, the structural development of western old-growth ecosystems has been of great interest in ecological research. As the loss of historical forested acreage in western Montana became more widely recognized, the preservation of frequent-fire old-growth stands became a focus of forest management. And, although old-growth studies are commonly found in the literature, few studies focus on long-term carbon (C) storage associated with interior old-growth. This limited understanding of the C storage capacity and patterns in old-growth forests of western Montana leaves little ability to evaluate the role of old-growth forests in ecosystem level C storage capacity. Further, there is a disconnect between old-growth definitions and old-growth management. Forest Service definitions for interior old-growth ecosystems inadequately describe the structure, composition, and function of these ecosystems, and definitions applied from the Pacific Northwest do not capture the unique qualities of old-growth of the Northern Rockies. In this thesis, I first present a review of existing literature on definitions and characteristics of old-growth ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest and contrast these with old-growth forests of the Northern Rockies. In the second chapter, I present studies undertaken to generate empiric data on C storage in old-growth forests of this region. Specifically, studies were conducted to compare ecosystem C of old-growth western larch (Larix occidentalis) stands to that of paired 30-40 year old second growth stands in western Montana. Old-growth forests were found to store nearly three times more C than second growth forests, with most of the difference coming from C stored in the overstory. Finally, the third chapter describes a web-based plant guide that simplifies the challenge of plant identification by eliminating the use of technical vocabulary, focusing instead on visually recognizable plant characters and providing students with a more user-friendly means of identifying specimens and obtaining species-specific information."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Carbon Storage in Old-Growth Western Larch (Larix occidentalis) Forests of Western Montana"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Bisbing, Sarah M"],"dc:description.abstract":["Over the last 30 years, the structural development of western old-growth ecosystems has been of great interest in ecological research. As the loss of historical forested acreage in western Montana became more widely recognized, the preservation of frequent-fire old-growth stands became a focus of forest management. And, although old-growth studies are commonly found in the literature, few studies focus on long-term carbon (C) storage associated with interior old-growth. This limited understanding of the C storage capacity and patterns in old-growth forests of western Montana leaves little ability to evaluate the role of old-growth forests in ecosystem level C storage capacity. Further, there is a disconnect between old-growth definitions and old-growth management. Forest Service definitions for interior old-growth ecosystems inadequately describe the structure, composition, and function of these ecosystems, and definitions applied from the Pacific Northwest do not capture the unique qualities of old-growth of the Northern Rockies. In this thesis, I first present a review of existing literature on definitions and characteristics of old-growth ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest and contrast these with old-growth forests of the Northern Rockies. In the second chapter, I present studies undertaken to generate empiric data on C storage in old-growth forests of this region. Specifically, studies were conducted to compare ecosystem C of old-growth western larch (Larix occidentalis) stands to that of paired 30-40 year old second growth stands in western Montana. Old-growth forests were found to store nearly three times more C than second growth forests, with most of the difference coming from C stored in the overstory. Finally, the third chapter describes a web-based plant guide that simplifies the challenge of plant identification by eliminating the use of technical vocabulary, focusing instead on visually recognizable plant characters and providing students with a more user-friendly means of identifying specimens and obtaining species-specific information."],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/170"],"dc:publisher":["University of Montana"],"dc:subject":["carbon storage","forest floor carbon","interior old-growth","Montana forests","Montana old-growth","old-growth definitions","old-growth forests","second growth forests","total ecosystem carbon","western larch"],"dc:title":["Carbon Storage in Old-Growth Western Larch (Larix occidentalis) Forests of Western Montana"],"dc:type":["Thesis - Campus Access Only"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science (MS)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:12:42Z"}