Carbon stocks in the native Reference Forest soil were similar to other nearby mature forest study sites. Our Reference Forest soil contained 1.9 Mg C ha1 in the O horizon and 42.7 Mg C ha1 in the 0–30 cm mineral soil (sampling depth of nearby mature forest). The seasonal semi-deciduous forest located 6 km from our field site that was found to have 4.0 ± 1.4 Mg C ha1 in the O horizon and 35.5 ± 10.9 Mg C ha1 in the 0–30 cm mineral soil