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Name	Date
Oberle_FEMC_FinalReport_NYBG Authors: Brad Oberle, John Zeiger	2025

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Thain Family Forest Soil Dry Composition Standard Operating Procedure 1.1 Authors: Brad Oberle The Thain Family Forest (TFF), a 20 ha stand within NYBG, Bronx, NY, is the largest old growth forest in New York City and the epicenter for 125 years of urban forest inventory and ecosystem monitoring. By building on prior analyses and aligning with international standards, NYBGs ongoing forest monitoring will reinforce the forest’s status as the world’s premier urban research forest with high quality, transparent and repeatable data across the spectrum of forest structures and functions. This standard operating procedure details procedures for determining the dry mass and bulk composition of samples from the floor of the TFF, with the goals of (1) aligning with an international standard and (2) establishing a scalable framework for repeatedly measuring multiple features of soil structure and function. Doing so will (A) maximize comparability with other research forests and (B) inform analyses of (i) change in soils from key historic datasets, (ii) belowground impacts of current and proposed management and (iii) ongoing monitoring of soil health, especially related to carbon stocks and fluxes. To accomplish these goals, this protocol adapts the Smithsonian Institution Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO) protocol (Smithsonian institution n.d.) with more intensive sampling of points that overlap with CFI plots. This SOP also emphasizes lab procedures tailored to resources available at NYBG. The Thain Family Forest Field Soil Field Sampling Protocol (TFF_soil_field_SOP_v0.1) describes field protocols for collecting representative samples of leaf litter and soils at different depths (0-10 cm, 10-20 cm, 20-50 cm and deeper in 50 cm increments) for temporary storage in a 4 degree C refrigerator. This protocol describes complementary laboratory techniques to determine the dry mass and bulk composition of stored samples of litter and soil. The development of this SOP was supported with resources from the Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Consortium. Data collection activities are indicated by the symbol “○” with named fields on the datasheet labeled in bold underline.	2025
Thain Family Forest Soil Field Sampling Standard Operating Procedure 1.1 The Thain Family Forest (TFF), a 20 ha stand within NYBG, Bronx, NY, is the largest old growth forest in New York City and the epicenter for 125 years of urban forest inventory and ecosystem monitoring. By building on prior analyses and aligning with international standards, NYBGs ongoing forest monitoring will reinforce the forest’s status as the world’s premier urban research forest with high quality, transparent and repeatable data across the spectrum of forest structures and functions. This standard operating procedure establishes systematic sampling for soils in the TFF, with the goals of (1) aligning with an international standard and (2) establishing a scalable framework for repeatedly measuring multiple features of soil structure and function. Doing so will (A) maximize comparability with other research forests and (B) inform analyses of (i) change in soils from key historic datasets, (ii) belowground impacts of current and proposed management and (iii) ongoing monitoring of soil health, especially related to carbon stocks and fluxes. To accomplish these goals, this protocol adapts the Smithsonian Institution Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO) protocol (Smithsonian institution n.d.) to maximize overlap with the existing Continuous Forest Inventory (CFI) aboveground plots and soil types. Sampling at an intensity of 1 20x20 m square soil sampling array ha-1, the 20 soil plots capture 48 CFI plots on all 8 major soil types (Figure 1). Soil plots consist of 9 sites along three transects sampled to different depths and aggregated in different ways depending on overlap with the CFI. For coarse-resolution data in all 20 plots, we physically aggregate samples from 0-10, 10-20 and 20-50 cm depths from the outer transects parallel to the CFI plots (Figure 2 rows “N” and “S”) and the center transect (Fig. 2 row “PLOT”) at depths below 50 cm in 50 cm increments. In 16 soil plots that overlap CFI plots, we will process individual, disaggregated cores at the upper two depths. At all sampling locations, we will record litter depth, earthworm casing presence depth of refusal and organic horizon depth. We will process litter and soil samples onsite in the NYBG Pfizer Lab. The development of this SOP was supported with resources from the Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative. Data collection activities are indicated by the symbol “○” with named fields on the datasheet labeled in bold underline	2024

Name

Date

Thain Family Forest Soil Dry Composition Standard Operating Procedure 1.1
Authors: Brad Oberle
The Thain Family Forest (TFF), a 20 ha stand within NYBG, Bronx, NY, is the largest old growth forest in New York City and the epicenter for 125 years of urban forest inventory and ecosystem monitoring. By building on prior analyses and aligning with international standards, NYBGs ongoing forest monitoring will reinforce the forest’s status as the world’s premier urban research forest with high quality, transparent and repeatable data across the spectrum of forest structures and functions. This standard operating procedure details procedures for determining the dry mass and bulk composition of samples from the floor of the TFF, with the goals of (1) aligning with an international standard and (2) establishing a scalable framework for repeatedly measuring multiple features of soil structure and function. Doing so will (A) maximize comparability with other research forests and (B) inform analyses of (i) change in soils from key historic datasets, (ii) belowground impacts of current and proposed management and (iii) ongoing monitoring of soil health, especially related to carbon stocks and fluxes. To accomplish these goals, this protocol adapts the Smithsonian Institution Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO) protocol (Smithsonian institution n.d.) with more intensive sampling of points that overlap with CFI plots. This SOP also emphasizes lab procedures tailored to resources available at NYBG. The Thain Family Forest Field Soil Field Sampling Protocol (TFF_soil_field_SOP_v0.1) describes field protocols for collecting representative samples of leaf litter and soils at different depths (0-10 cm, 10-20 cm, 20-50 cm and deeper in 50 cm increments) for temporary storage in a 4 degree C refrigerator. This protocol describes complementary laboratory techniques to determine the dry mass and bulk composition of stored samples of litter and soil. The development of this SOP was supported with resources from the Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Consortium. Data collection activities are indicated by the symbol “○” with named fields on the datasheet labeled in bold underline.

2025

Thain Family Forest Soil Field Sampling Standard Operating Procedure 1.1
The Thain Family Forest (TFF), a 20 ha stand within NYBG, Bronx, NY, is the largest old growth forest in New York City and the epicenter for 125 years of urban forest inventory and ecosystem monitoring. By building on prior analyses and aligning with international standards, NYBGs ongoing forest monitoring will reinforce the forest’s status as the world’s premier urban research forest with high quality, transparent and repeatable data across the spectrum of forest structures and functions. This standard operating procedure establishes systematic sampling for soils in the TFF, with the goals of (1) aligning with an international standard and (2) establishing a scalable framework for repeatedly measuring multiple features of soil structure and function. Doing so will (A) maximize comparability with other research forests and (B) inform analyses of (i) change in soils from key historic datasets, (ii) belowground impacts of current and proposed management and (iii) ongoing monitoring of soil health, especially related to carbon stocks and fluxes. To accomplish these goals, this protocol adapts the Smithsonian Institution Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO) protocol (Smithsonian institution n.d.) to maximize overlap with the existing Continuous Forest Inventory (CFI) aboveground plots and soil types. Sampling at an intensity of 1 20x20 m square soil sampling array ha-1, the 20 soil plots capture 48 CFI plots on all 8 major soil types (Figure 1). Soil plots consist of 9 sites along three transects sampled to different depths and aggregated in different ways depending on overlap with the CFI. For coarse-resolution data in all 20 plots, we physically aggregate samples from 0-10, 10-20 and 20-50 cm depths from the outer transects parallel to the CFI plots (Figure 2 rows “N” and “S”) and the center transect (Fig. 2 row “PLOT”) at depths below 50 cm in 50 cm increments. In 16 soil plots that overlap CFI plots, we will process individual, disaggregated cores at the upper two depths. At all sampling locations, we will record litter depth, earthworm casing presence depth of refusal and organic horizon depth. We will process litter and soil samples onsite in the NYBG Pfizer Lab. The development of this SOP was supported with resources from the Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative. Data collection activities are indicated by the symbol “○” with named fields on the datasheet labeled in bold underline

2024