Impact of Windthrows Disturbance on Chemical and Biological Properties of the Forest Soils from Romania (original) (raw)
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Windthrows in the forestry fund, which have become more frequent due to the increase in extreme weather events, have had and continue to have negative economic and ecological effects, making them a pressing issue in forestry research. Their urgency has been amplified in light of the need to develop sustainable forest management systems. The main objectives of this study are to evaluate the effects of windthrows on some microbiological properties of forest soils and to monitor the evolution of the degraded tree regeneration, 4 years after the event, for three tree species: Norway spruce (Picea abies L.), sessile oak (Quercus petraea), and European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.). The experimental plot used is arranged in dispersed blocks and subdivided plots, with three repetitions, bifactorial, factor A representing the tree species, and factor B the windthrows: in two situations: affected (AW) and not affected by felling (WW). Three representative soil profiles were studied for each tre...
iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry
Wind disturbance is a major natural driver of forest dynamics in a large part of Europe and can affect soil properties in different ways and for different time. The present study focuses on the effects of post-disturbance management of windthrow plots in the Tatra Mountains, Slovakia, on soil microorganisms ten years after the disturbance. Their comparison with the microbial characteristics at a new windthrow plot caused by strong wind in 2014 was also carried out. Three research plots differing in the way of their management after the windstorm in 2004 (EXT, salvage plot; FIR, salvage plot affected by fire; NEX, unsalvaged plot) and the plot destroyed by strong wind in May 2014 (REX) were used for study. Ten soil samples were taken from the mineral A-horizon (depth: 0-10 cm) at each plot in autumn 2014. In soil samples, soil chemical and microbial characteristics (microbial biomass C, basal and substrate-induced respiration, N-mineralisation, catalase activity, richness and diversity of soil microbial functional groups based on the Biolog approach) were determined. Ten years after the disturbance we still observed significant differences in microbial characteristics between FIR and the other plots, with higher microbial activity at the FIR, while no significant differences were found among the other plots. The results indicate that at a higher altitude the effect of fire on soil microorganisms is more distinct than removing or not removing of fallen trees and persists even over a decade.
Soil microbial communities were studied in the Tatra National Park, which was affected by a windthrow in 2004 and by fire in 2005. The objective of the study was to compare the response of soil microorganisms to different management regimes on disturbed areas and to evaluate the microbial community changes during the period 2006-2013. Soil samples were taken from the A-horizon along 90 m transects on 4 plots (reference intact plot, plot with extracted wood, burnt plot, plot with fallen trees left in situ). Basal and substrateinduced respiration, microbial biomass carbon (C), nitrogen (N) mineralisation, catalase activity, and richness and diversity of microbial functional groups were determined in soil samples using the BIOLOG EcoPlates. Generally, the highest microbial activity and biomass C were revealed at the reference and fire plots. No distinct differences in microbial attributes were found between the extracted and nonextracted plots. At all windthrow plots, substrate-induced respiration, microbial biomass C and N-mineralisation showed a significant increasing linear trend with time what indicates a gradual recovery of microbial community at plots after windthrow.
Acta Silvatica & Lignaria Hungarica, 2020
This study examined the interaction of tree species and soil development in litter and the 0-10 cm mineral topsoil layer in European beech, Norway spruce, and sessile oak forests. It also compared the main soil chemical, physical, and selected microbiological indicators as well as the microbial biomass, basal and substrate induced respiration, lipid phosphate content, phospholipid fatty acid profiles (PLFA), and respiratory quinones (RQ). With Norway spruce, soil pH, clay, and silt content were significantly lower, while exchangeable acidity was higher. This leads to a major loss of exchangeable cations of the upper soil layer resulting in lower base saturation. The microbial metabolic activity and microbial biomass of deciduous forest soils were significantly higher. The respiratory quotient (q) was highest in spruce, indicating disadvantageous circumstances for microbial activity. Our results demonstrate the importance of a complex study of physicochemical and biological soil parameters when investigating the impact of forest management on soil by, for example, providing data for the development of forest condition monitoring activities.
Annals of Forest Research, 2016
This study was conducted to evaluate the variability of the chemical properties of the soil of an oak forest affected by defoliation and the corresponding microbial abundance. Soil samples were collected from a control zone (zone 1) without outbreaks of defoliating insects and from a sample zone (zone 2) where the trees were affected by Lymantria dispar L. defoliation. The research was conducted to determine the changed conditions for soil microorganisms produced as a consequence of defoliation. The results indicated, by means of analysis of variance (two-way ANOVA, P = 0.05), statistically significant differences (P < 0.0001) with respect to soil hydrolytic acidity, pH, ammonium nitrogen, heterotrophic bacteria, nitrogen fixing bacteria from genus Azotobacter and fungi. The data revealed a low number of heterotrophic bacteria and low pH values in samples taken from the area affected by defoliation. Soils under stands of defoliated trees showed higher values with respect to soil acidity, ammonium nitrogen, fungi and nitrogen fixing bacteria Azotobacter. Moreover, the soil moisture, nitrate nitrogen, organic matter content, organic carbon, the number of heterotrophic bacteria and the number of bacteria from genus Azotobacter exhibited statistically significant seasonal differences between the two zones studied. The correlations between the tested parameters showed that soil parameters such as moisture content, soil acidity, pH, organic matter content, organic carbon, total nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen are important factors influencing the soil populations of aerobic mesophilic heterotrophic bacteria, fungi and nitrogen fixing bacteria in the studied forest ecosystem.
Functional Ecology, 2016
1. Intensifying forest disturbance regimes are likely to impact heavily on future carbon (C) budgets of forest ecosystems. Our understanding of how forest disturbance affects the sources of soil CO 2 efflux (F s) is, however, poor. This may lead to uncertainties over future C sink estimates of forest ecosystems and associated feedbacks to the atmosphere. 2. We investigated the impact of forest windthrow on the heterotrophic and autotrophic sources of F s , underlying biotic and abiotic drivers (i.e. plant community composition, soil organic matter (SOM) properties and soil microclimate), and consequences for soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks in situ along a disturbance chronosequence in the European Alps. This chronosequence facilitated the study of temporal changes in the above parameters between the third and sixth years after windthrow. 3. Along the chronosequence, structural equation modelling revealed that soil temperature, soil moisture, SOM properties and plant community composition explained 90% of the variation in F s. While no direct interactions among plants and SOM properties could be determined, plants significantly affected soil microclimate. Windthrow had no obvious effect on F s because reduced autotrophic soil respiration (R a) was offset by a $ 60% increase in heterotrophic soil respiration (R h), principally due to increased soil temperatures. R a after windthrow was dominated by grasses and herbs rather than trees; however, a high abundance of ectomycorrhizal fungi suggests an important indirect tree contribution to post-windthrow R a. SOC stocks significantly declined over the post-windthrow period. 4. Our results show that R h was by far the dominant source of F s after forest windthrow. As C losses from R h and SOC stocks were in the same order of magnitude, this study demonstrates that post-windthrow declines in SOC stocks were mainly driven by a temperaturerelated increase in R h .
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 2011
This study focused on the responses of soil microorganisms to different management regimes on disturbed windthrow areas. Microbial parameters potentially serving as indicators of environmental changes within a long-term monitoring of forest development after large-scale disturbance events were assessed. Basal and substrate-induced respiration, N mineralisation, catalase activity, microbial biomass as well as functional diversity based on Biolog assay were determined in soil samples from three disturbed plots and an undisturbed reference plot in the Tatra National Park (Slovakia) since 2006. A relative congruence of inter-annual trends of microbial activity indicators at all plots results from a common response of microbiota to changes of climate at the landscape level after forest stands were destroyed. While catalase activity and functional diversity proved to be useful indicators of temporal trends, microbial biomass seems to reflect different management regimes at the disturbed plots.
Biogeochemistry, 2003
Respiration rates and chemical characteristics of soil organic layers were measured at 40 experimental plots, 5 sampling sites per plot, in a moderately polluted Niepołomice Forest, S. Poland. The respiration rate was positively related to pH, water content and concentrations of Ca and K, and negatively to N tot , Zn and Pb (p < 0.001 for all variables). No significant correlation was found between the respiration rate and Na, Cu or Cd (p > 0.25 in all cases). The regression model explained 73% of the total variance. Analysis of variance components revealed that ca. 35% of the total variance in the respiration rate can be explained by the vegetation types covering the area: oak-hornbeam vs. pine-oak forests. The next 40% was explained by the variability between sampling plots and the remaining 25% by within-plot variability among sampling sites. Similar results were obtained for water content. The variance in pH was split 30%:39%:31% between vegetation types:plots:sampling sites. No variance in Ca and Na was explained by the forest type, and approximately half of the variance was due to between-plot and half to within-plot variability. In contrast, potassium concentration differed between forest types (58% variance explained), more than 25% of total variance was due to between-plot variability and only 15% due to within-plot variability. For Zn the results were 1%, 66% and 33%, for Cu 0%, 38% and 62%, for Pb 48%, 18% and 34%, and for Cd 0%, 33% and 67%, respectively. The study clearly shows (1) substantial variance in some soil characteristics between sampling sites and (2) a different split of variance among spatial scales for different soil characteristics.
Eurasian Soil Science, 2009
The aim of this study was to find out the effect of intensity of thinning (FD-dense stand = 2044 trees/ha; FS-open stand = 1652 trees/ha) performed in young forest stands (99% spruce, 1% fir) in Moravian-Silesian Beskids Mts. (908 m a.s.l.; 49°30 ′ 10 ′′ N, 18°32 ′ 20 ′′ E) on V DS (C mineralization rate immediately after drying and re-wetting of soil), V BR (basal soil respiration at 60% w/w soil water content measured 5th day after rewetting of dry soil), V MAX (maximum respiration rate after glucose addition measured from 6th day after rewetting of dry soil), V DS / V MAX (heterotrophic respiratory potential) and AC DS /AC BR (the potential flush of biologically available C) in Ae horizon of Haplic and Entic Podzols. The AC DS /AC BR was calculated from three 24-hour respirations of 7-day incubation according to the equation AC DS /AC BR = V DS V MAX /(2 V BR (V MAX-V DS)). The aim of the work was also to find the effect of circa 11-year abandonment of a mountain meadow in the locality (825-860 m a.s.l.; 49°30 ′ 17 ′′ N, 18°32 ′ 28 ′′ E) on the same parameters in Ah horizon of Gleyic Luvisol. The studied parameters were measured in the course of the vegetation season 2004 (May-September) at 30-day intervals. The higher intensity of thinning caused alternately higher or lower or very similar values of V DS , V BR , V MAX , V DS / V MAX and AC DS /AC BR in the course of the season. The abandonment of the meadow increased V DS , V BR , V MAX throughout the whole experiment. V DS / V MAX increased due to the abandonment except for the last sampling in September. Alternately higher or lower or very similar values of AC DS /AC BR in course of the season appeared on abandoned or moderately mown meadows. The lower intensity of thinning or abandonment of the meadow were connected with increasing number of significant (P < 0.05) correlations between the studied properties.
Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 2014
In a Quercetum petraeae-cerris forest in northeastern Hungary, we examined effects of litter input alterations on the quantity and quality soil carbon stocks and soil CO 2 emissions. Treatments at the Síkfőkút DIRT (Detritus Input and Removal Treatments) experimental site include adding (by doubling) of either leaf litter (DL) or wood (DW) (including branches, twigs, bark), and removing all aboveground litter (NL), all root inputs by trenching (NR), or removing all litter inputs (NI). Within 4 years we saw a significant decrease in soil carbon (C) concentrations in the upper 15 cm for root exclusion plots. Decreases in C for the litter exclusion treatments appeared later, and were smaller than declines in root exclusion plots, highlighting the role of root detritus in the formation of soil organic matter in this forest. By year 8 of the experiment, surface soil C concentrations were lower than Control plots by 32% in NI, 23% in NR and 19% in NL. Increases in soil C in litter addition treatments were less than C losses from litter exclusion treatments, with surface C increasing by 12% in DL and 6% in DW. Detritus additions and removals had significant effects on soil microclimate, with decreases in seasonal variations in soil temperature (between summer and winter) in Double Litter plots but enhanced seasonal variation in detritus exclusion plots. Carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions were most influenced by detritus input quantity and soil organic matter concentration when soils were warm and moist. Clearly changes in detritus inputs from altered forest productivity, as well as altered litter impacts on soil microclimate, must be included in models of soil carbon fluxes and pools with expected future changes in climate. 2012), resulting in alteration of the quality and quantity of detritus inputs to soils. These changes can thus influence decomposition (Trofymow et al., 2002; Callesen et al., 2003; Chapin et al., 2009), thereby altering soil organic matter (SOM) content and dynamics (Carrillo et al., 2010; Kotroczó et al., 2014). The role of forest soils in the global C balance is critical; although forests cover less than onethird of the earth's land surface, they provide 52-72% of global net primary biomass production (NPP) (Melillo et al., 1993, Roy et al., 2001; FAO 2010) and they contain approximately 80% of aboveground carbon pools (FAO 2005). Globally, soils are important components of global C stores, containing about two and a half times as much carbon as is found in vegetation (Batjes, 1998; Field and Raupach 2004). Globally CO 2-C emissions from soil are estimated to be 8 × 10 16 g y-1 (Raich et al., 2002), more than 10 times the amount of C derived from fossil fuel combustion (Schlesinger and Andrews, 2000). Anthropogenic alterations of soil respiration have substantial implications for the global C cycle, with rising atmospheric CO 2 levels resulting in a positive feedback to global warming (Raich and Tufekcioglu, 2000; Bernhardt et al., 2006). Alterations of detrital inputs can also affect soil microclimatic conditions, especially soil temperature and moisture content, which influences soil microbial activity and soil CO 2 emissions (Scott-Denton et al., 2006; Heimann and Reichstein, 2008; Lellei-Kovács et al., 2011). Where water is not a limiting factor, temperature is the primary abiotic driver of biological activity (Vogel et al., 2005). However, as soil moisture declines due to evapotranspiration or drought, moisture content becomes a more influential driver of respiration rates (Fierer and Schimel, 2002; Davidson et al., 2006a; Voroney, 2007). Temperature and soil moisture may also interact (Shen et al., 2009), so their impacts cannot be easily separated (Phillips et al., 2011). Although much has been learned about abiotic controls on soil respiration, direct effects of changes in the quantity and sources of detritus on soil C balance or soil respiration remain poorly understood. Forests at the Síkfőkút International Long-Term Research (ILTER) Site are exhibiting climatological and compositional changes that are likely to affect leaf and root litter inputs, SOM content, and soil CO 2 emissions (Kotroczó et al., 2007; Fekete et al., 2011b). Long-term meteorological data indicate that the site has become drier and warmer over the past four decades, with annual precipitation decreasing by 15-20% in many Hungarian territories during the 20 th century (Antal et al., 1997; Domonkos, 2003; Galos et al., 2009). Summer mean precipitation has not changed significantly over the last few decades, but the frequency of summer drought events increased during the 20 th century; the Hungarian summer climate has shifted towards a more Mediterranean like climate (Domonkos, 2003; Bartholy et al., 2007). Species composition and the structure of the Síkfőkút forest has changed significantly since the early 1970's; 68.4% of sessile oak (Quercus petraea) and 15.8% of Turkey oak (Quercus cerris) died, and field maple (Acer campestre) has increased in density from 0 to 131 stems ha-1 (Kotroczó et al., 2007). Leaf-litter production was 4060 kg ha-1 y-1 between 1972 and 1976, and 3540 kg ha-1 y-1 between 2003 and 2010 (Kotroczó et al., 2012). Quercus cerris and Acer campestre litter increased in relative importance as these species increased in dominance following the mortality of Quercus petraea (Kotroczó et al., 2012). Similar forest composition changes are also being observed in many areas throughout Europe (Somogyi, 2000; Thomas et al., 2002; Sonesson and Drobyshev, 2010). Differences in the chemistry of leaf and root litter can influence relative decomposition rates that control organic matter inputs to soil, thus influencing long-term C sequestration (Gholz et al., 2000). Furthermore, alterations in