RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Assessing soil C stock and C to N ratio of soil organic matter under mixed pine-beech forests at different scales
A1 Getino Alvarez, Marina
A1 San Martín Fernández, Roberto
A1 Pretzsch, Hans
A1 Pach, Maciej
A1 Bravo Oviedo, Felipe
A1 Turrión Nieves, María Belén
K1 Soil organic matter
K1 Mixed forests
K1 Pinus sylvestris
K1 Fagus sylvatica
K1 31 Ciencias Agrarias
AB Healthy soils are the second C sink on Earth, and this sink could last for hundreds or even thousands of years as stable soil organic matter (SOM). Forest soils, in particular, have the potential to store significant amounts of C, however, the amount of C sequestered and the carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio of soil organic matter (SOM) depend on the vegetation influencing the soil. In the last decades, mixed stands have aroused great interest among the scientific community, but it is still necessary to intensify research on its effect on soils and their C storage capacity. In this study, we assess soil C sequestration potential in soil and litter of mixed and pure stands of Scots pine and beech (Pinus sylvestris–Fagus sylvatica). Three triplets (9 forest plots), two located in Southern Poland and one in Southern Germany were studied. A total of 40 circular subplots of 5 m radius were selected within the triplets, covering a wide range of species mixture, and soil and litter were sampled. Data were analyzed at two scales (plot-level and microsite-level) to determine which option is more appropriate when studying the mixing effect on SOM. Cstock in forest floor ranged between 2.5 and 11.1 Mg C ha−1 and in mineral soil between 39.6 and 337.8 Mg ha−1. According to our findings, the percentage of species mixture primarily impacted the forest floor rather than the mineral soil. On the forest floor, stands with 25–50% pine in the mixture were found to have a C/N ratio between 20 and 30, which indicates an equilibrium state between mineralization and immobilization. In the mineral soil, total organic C was the only variable affected by mixture percentage (p < 0.1). Finally, microsite-level scale proved to be the most appropriate when studying tree stand composition effect on SOM, as the plot-level scale diluted or masked some effects.
PB Springer
SN 1612-4669
YR 2023
FD 2023
LK https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/59886
UL https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/59886
LA eng
NO European Journal of Forest Research, 2023
NO Producción Científica
DS UVaDOC
RD 24-nov-2024