Dataset Information

Soil phosphorus status and P nutrition strategies of European beech forests on carbonate compared to silicate parent material.

ABSTRACT: Sustainable forest management requires understanding of ecosystem phosphorus (P) cycling. Lang et al. (2017) [Biogeochemistry, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-017-0375-0] introduced the concept of P-acquiring vs. P-recycling nutrition strategies for European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forests on silicate parent material, and demonstrated a change from P-acquiring to P-recycling nutrition from P-rich to P-poor sites. The present study extends this silicate rock-based assessment to forest sites with soils formed from carbonate bedrock. For all sites, it presents a large set of general soil and bedrock chemistry data. It thoroughly describes the soil P status and generates a comprehensive concept on forest ecosystem P nutrition covering the majority of Central European forest soils. For this purpose, an Ecosystem P Nutrition Index (ENI _P ) was developed, which enabled the comparison of forest P nutrition strategies at the carbonate sites in our study among each other and also with those of the silicate sites investigated by Lang et al. (2017). The P status of forest soils on carbonate substrates was characterized by low soil P stocks and a large fraction of organic Ca-bound P (probably largely Ca phytate) during early stages of pedogenesis. Soil P stocks, particularly those in the mineral soil and of inorganic P forms, including Al- and Fe-bound P, became more abundant with progressing pedogenesis and accumulation of carbonate rock dissolution residue. Phosphorus-rich impure, silicate-enriched carbonate bedrock promoted the accumulation of dissolution residue and supported larger soil P stocks, mainly bound to Fe and Al minerals. In carbonate-derived soils, only low P amounts were bioavailable during early stages of pedogenesis, and, similar to P-poor silicate sites, P nutrition of beech forests depended on tight (re)cycling of P bound in forest floor soil organic matter (SOM). In contrast to P-poor silicate sites, where the ecosystem P nutrition strategy is direct biotic recycling of SOM-bound organic P, recycling during early stages of pedogenesis on carbonate substrates also involves the dissolution of stable Ca-P_org precipitates formed from phosphate released during SOM decomposition. In contrast to silicate sites, progressing pedogenesis and accumulation of P-enriched carbonate bedrock dissolution residue at the carbonate sites promote again P-acquiring mechanisms for ecosystem P nutrition.

Supplementary information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10533-021-00884-7.

SUBMITTER: Prietzel J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8860963 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Soil phosphorus status and P nutrition strategies of European beech forests on carbonate compared to silicate parent material.

Prietzel Jörg J Krüger Jaane J Kaiser Klaus K Amelung Wulf W Bauke Sara L SL Dippold Michaela A MA Kandeler Ellen E Klysubun Wantana W Lewandowski Hans H Löppmann Sebastian S Luster Jörg J Marhan Sven S Puhlmann Heike H Schmitt Marius M Siegenthaler Maja B MB Siemens Jan J Spielvogel Sandra S Willbold Sabine S Wolff Jan J Lang Friederike F

Biogeochemistry 20220202 1

Sustainable forest management requires understanding of ecosystem phosphorus (P) cycling. Lang et al. (2017) [Biogeochemistry, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-017-0375-0] introduced the concept of P-acquiring vs. P-recycling nutrition strategies for European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forests on silicate parent material, and demonstrated a change from P-acquiring to P-recycling nutrition from P-rich to P-poor sites. The present study extends this silicate rock-based assessmen ...[more]

PMID: 35221401

Similar Datasets

Project description:European beech forests growing on marginal calcareous soils have been proposed to be vulnerable to decreased soil water availability. This could result in a large-scale loss of ecological services and economical value in a changing climate. In order to evaluate the potential consequences of this drought-sensitivity, we investigated potential species range shifts for European beech forests on calcareous soil in the 21st century by statistical species range distribution modelling for present day and projected future climate conditions. We found a dramatic decline by 78% until 2080. Still the physiological or biogeochemical mechanisms underlying the drought sensitivity of European beech are largely unknown. Drought sensitivity of beech is commonly attributed to plant physiological constraints. Furthermore, it has also been proposed that reduced soil water availability could promote nitrogen (N) limitation of European beech due to impaired microbial N cycling in soil, but this hypothesis has not yet been tested. Hence we investigated the influence of simulated climate change (increased temperatures, reduced soil water availability) on soil gross microbial N turnover and plant N uptake in the beech-soil interface of a typical mountainous beech forest stocking on calcareous soil in SW Germany. For this purpose, triple 15N isotope labelling of intact beech seedling-soil-microbe systems was combined with a space-for-time climate change experiment. We found that nitrate was the dominant N source for beech natural regeneration. Reduced soil water content caused a persistent decline of ammonia oxidizing bacteria and therefore, a massive attenuation of gross nitrification rates and nitrate availability in the soil. Consequently, nitrate and total N uptake of beech seedlings were strongly reduced so that impaired growth of beech seedlings was observed already after one year of exposure to simulated climatic change. We conclude that the N cycle in this ecosystem and here specifically nitrification is vulnerable to reduced water availability, which can directly lead to nutritional limitations of beech seedlings. This tight link between reduced water availability, drought stress for nitrifiers, decreased gross nitrification rates and nitrate availability and finally nitrate uptake by beech seedlings could represent the Achilles' heel for beech under climate change stresses.

Project description:More frequent and severe disturbances increasingly open the forest canopy and initiate tree regeneration. Simultaneously, increasing weather extremes, such as drought and heat, are threatening species adapted to cool and moist climate. The magnitude of the microclimatic buffering capacity of forest canopies to mitigate hot and dry weather conditions and its disturbance-induced reduction remains poorly quantified. Also, the influence of disturbance legacies (e.g., deadwood) on forest microclimate is unresolved. In a unique manipulation experiment we investigated (i) the microclimatic buffering capacity of forest canopies in years with different climatic conditions; (ii) the impacts of spatial disturbance patterns on surface light and microclimate; and (iii) the effect of deadwood presence and type on microclimate. Treatments included two disturbance patterns (i.e., aggregated and distributed), four deadwood types (i.e., standing, downed, standing and downed, removed), and one untreated control (i.e., nine treatments in total), replicated at five sites dominated by European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in southeastern Germany. We measured forest floor light conditions and derived diurnal extremes and variation in temperature (T) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) during four consecutive summer seasons (2016 - 2019). The buffering capacity of intact forest canopies was higher in warm and dry years. Surface light was significantly higher in spatially aggregated disturbance gaps compared to distributed disturbances of similar severity. An increase in surface light by 10 % relative to closed canopies elevated Tmax and VPDmax by 0.42°C and 0.04 kPa, respectively. Deadwood presence and type did not affect the forest microclimate significantly. Microclimatic buffering under forest canopies can dampen the effects of climate change. However, increasing canopy disturbances result in more light penetrating the canopy, reducing the microclimatic buffering capacity of forests. We conclude that forest management should foster microclimatic buffering in forests as one element of a multi-pronged strategy to counter climate change.

Project description:BackgroundOld-growth and primeval forests are passing through a natural development cycle with recurring stages of forest development. Several methods for assigning patches of different structure and size to forest development stages or phases do exist. All currently existing classification methods have in common that a priori assumptions about the characteristics of certain stand structural attributes such as deadwood amount are made. We tested the hypothesis that multivariate datasets of primeval beech forest stand structure possess an inherent, aggregated configuration of data points with individual clusters representing forest development stages. From two completely mapped primeval beech forests in Albania, seven ecologically important stand structural attributes characterizing stand density, regeneration, stem diameter variation and amount of deadwood are derived at 8216 and 9666 virtual sampling points (moving window, focal filtering). K-means clustering is used to detect clusters in the datasets (number of clusters (k) between 2 and 5). The quality of the single clustering solutions is analyzed with average silhouette width as a measure for clustering quality. In a sensitivity analysis, clustering is done with datasets of four different spatial scales of observation (200, 500, 1000 and 1500 m2, circular virtual plot area around sampling points) and with two different kernels (equal weighting of all objects within a plot vs. weighting by distance to the virtual plot center).ResultsThe clustering solutions succeeded in detecting and mapping areas with homogeneous stand structure. The areas had extensions of more than 200 m2, but differences between clusters were very small with average silhouette widths of less than 0.28. The obtained datasets had a homogeneous configuration with only very weak trends for clustering.ConclusionsOur results imply that forest development takes place on a continuous scale and that discrimination between development stages in primeval beech forests is splitting continuous datasets at selected thresholds. For the analysis of the forest development cycle, direct quantification of relevant structural features or processes might be more appropriate than classification. If, however, the study design demands classification, our results can justify the application of conventional forest development stage classification schemes rather than clustering.

Project description:Niche theory fundamentally contributed to the understanding of animal diversity. However, in soil, the diversity of animals seems enigmatic since the soil is a rather homogeneous habitat, and soil animals are often generalist feeders. A new approach to understand soil animal diversity is the use of ecological stoichiometry. The elemental composition of animals may explain their occurrence, distribution, and density. This approach has been used before in soil macrofauna, but this study is the first to investigate soil mesofauna. Using inductively coupled plasma optic emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), we analyzed the concentration of a wide range of elements (Al, Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, P, S, Zn) in 15 soil mite taxa (Oribatida, Mesostigmata) from the litter of two different forest types (beech, spruce) in Central Europe (Germany). Additionally, the concentration of carbon and nitrogen, and their stable isotope ratios (15N/14N, 13C/12C), reflecting their trophic niche, were measured. We hypothesized that (1) stoichiometry differs between mite taxa, (2) stoichiometry of mite taxa occurring in both forest types is not different, and (3) element composition is correlated to trophic level as indicated by 15N/14N ratios. The results showed that stoichiometric niches of soil mite taxa differed considerably indicating that elemental composition is an important niche dimension of soil animal taxa. Further, stoichiometric niches of the studied taxa did not differ significantly between the two forest types. Calcium was negatively correlated with trophic level indicating that taxa incorporating calcium carbonate in their cuticle for defense occupy lower trophic positions in the food web. Furthermore, a positive correlation of phosphorus with trophic level indicated that taxa higher in the food web have higher energetic demand. Overall, the results indicate that ecological stoichiometry of soil animals is a promising tool for understanding their diversity and functioning.

Dataset Information

Soil phosphorus status and P nutrition strategies of European beech forests on carbonate compared to silicate parent material.

Supplementary information

Publications

Soil phosphorus status and P nutrition strategies of European beech forests on carbonate compared to silicate parent material.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets