Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona, Italy.
Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona, Italy.
J Environ Manage. 2022 Jun 15;312:114935. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.114935. Epub 2022 Apr 1.
In forest ecosystems, a variety of abiotic and biotic soil forming factors drives soil organic matter (SOM) and nutrients cycling with a profitable outcome on climate change mitigation. As a consequence, type and intensity of forest management, through its impact on carbon (C) and nutrient soil stocks, can be considered as an additional soil forming force. In this study, we investigated the influence of the coppice conversion into high forest on pedogenesis and on soil C and nutrient (N, P, Ca, Mg, and K) stocks, fifty years later the beginning of the conversion-cycle. The trial was established in a Turkey oak forest historically managed under the coppice system in central Italy. Specifically, we considered tree population density (natural evolution - control, moderate thinning, heavy thinning) where soil samples were collected according to genetic horizon to estimate C, N, and P stocks both in the forest floor and at fixed depth intervals (0-30, 30-50 and 50-75 cm). Further, the stocks of exchangeable Ca, Mg, and K were also assessed for the mineral layers. The results showed that litter and the upper layer of mineral soil (0-30 cm) contained a similar quantity of C (about 74-83 Mg ha), independently of the trials and no differences were observed also in the whole soil stocks (about 192-213 Mg ha). The comparison of the mean stocks calculated per 1-cm of thickness of organic (O), organo-mineral (OM), and mineral (M) layers, although it did not display any difference among trials (excepted for P and Mg), showed a similar capability of the organo-mineral horizons to store C and nutrients compared with the organic ones (e.g., about 6-12 Mg ha, 0.3-0.5 Mg ha and 0.5-1.5 kg ha for C, N and P, respectively). Our findings showed that thinning operated on Turkey oak coppice did not affect soil capacity to store C and nutrients. These results suggested that the forest ecosystem itself is the main soil forming force and this is consistent with the target of adopting forest management able to control the global C cycle through the storage of SOM in the mineral soil rather than in forest floor, where SOM turnover is faster.
在森林生态系统中，各种非生物和生物土壤形成因素驱动着土壤有机质（SOM）和养分循环，对减缓气候变化有积极作用。因此，森林管理的类型和强度可以通过其对土壤碳（C）和养分储量的影响而被视为一种额外的土壤形成力。本研究调查了萌生林转变为成熟林对成土作用以及土壤 C 和养分（N、P、Ca、Mg 和 K）储量的影响，这是萌生林转变为成熟林 50 年后的情况。该试验在意大利中部历史上采用萌生林制度管理的土耳其栎林中进行。具体来说，我们考虑了树木种群密度（自然演替-对照、适度疏伐、重度疏伐），根据遗传层收集土壤样本，以估算林分凋落物和固定深度间隔（0-30、30-50 和 50-75 cm）中 C、N 和 P 的储量。此外，还评估了交换性 Ca、Mg 和 K 在矿物质层中的储量。结果表明，凋落物和矿质土壤的上层（0-30 cm）含有相似数量的 C（约 74-83 Mg ha），与试验无关，整个土壤储量也没有差异（约 192-213 Mg ha）。尽管各试验之间（除 P 和 Mg 外）没有差异，但按有机层（O）、有机-矿质层（OM）和矿质层（M）每 1 cm 厚度计算的平均储量的比较表明，有机-矿质层储存 C 和养分的能力与有机层相似（例如，C、N 和 P 分别约为 6-12 Mg ha、0.3-0.5 Mg ha 和 0.5-1.5 kg ha）。我们的研究结果表明，对土耳其栎萌生林的疏伐并没有影响土壤储存 C 和养分的能力。这些结果表明，森林生态系统本身是主要的土壤形成力，这与通过将 SOM 储存在矿质土壤中而不是在凋落物中控制全球 C 循环的森林管理目标是一致的，因为在凋落物中 SOM 的周转速度更快。
