Abstract
Afforestation has become an important tool for soil protection and land reclamation in Iceland. Nevertheless, the harsh climate and degraded soils are growth-limiting for trees, and little is know about changes in soil nutrients in maturing forests planted on the volcanic soils. In the present chronosequence study, changes in C, N and total P in soil (0–10 and 10–20 cm depth) and C and N in foliar tissue were investigated in stands of native Downy birch (Betula pubescens Enrh.) and the in Iceland introduced Siberian larch (Larix sibirica Ledeb.). The forest stands were between 14 and 97 years old and were established on heath land that had been treeless for centuries. Soils were Andosols derived from basaltic material and rhyolitic volcanic ash. A significant effect of tree species was only found for the N content in foliar tissue. Foliar N concentrations were significantly higher and foliar C/N ratios significantly lower in larch needles than in birch leaves. There was no effect of stand age. Changes in soil C and the soil nutrient status with time after afforestation were little significant. Soil C concentrations in 0–10 cm depth in forest stands older than 30 years were significantly higher than in heath land and forest stands younger than 30 years. This was attributed to a slow accumulation of organic matter. Soil N concentrations and soil Ptot were not affected by stand age. Nutrient pools in the two soil layers were calculated for an average weight of soil material (400 Mg soil ha−1 in 0–10 cm depth and 600 Mg soil ha−1 in 10–20 cm depth, respectively). Soil nutrient pools did not change significantly with time. Soil C pools were in average 23.6 Mg ha−1 in the upper soil layer and 16.9 Mg ha−1 in the lower soil layer. The highest annual increase in soil C under forest compared to heath land was 0.23 Mg C ha−1 year−1 in 0–10 cm depth calculated for the 53-year-old larch stand. Soil N pools were in average 1.0 Mg N ha−1 in both soil layers and did not decrease with time despite a low N deposition and the uptake and accumulation of N in biomass of the growing trees. Soil Ptot pools were in average 220 and 320 kg P ha−1 in the upper and lower soil layer, respectively. It was assumed that mycorrhizal fungi present in the stands had an influence on the availability of N and P to the trees.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ágústsdóttir AM (2004) Revegetation of eroded land and possibilities of carbon sequestration in Iceland. Nutr cycl Agroecosyst 70:241–247
Alfredssson H, Condron LM, Clarholm M, Davis MR (1998) Changes in soil acidity and organic matter following the establishment of conifers on former grassland in New Zealand. For Ecol Manage 112:245–252
Alriksson A, Olsson MT (1995) Soil changes in different age classes of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) on afforested farmland. Plant Soil 168/169:103–110
Anonymous (2001) Biological diversity in Iceland: national report to the convention on biological diversity. Ministry of the Environment & Icelandic Institute of Natural History, Reykjavík, p 58
Aradóttir AL, Svavarsdóttir K, Jónsson TH, Gudbergsson G (2000) Carbon accumulation in vegetation and soils by reclamation of degraded areas. Icel Agr Sci 13:99–113
Arnalds A (2004) Carbon sequestration and the restoration of land health–and example from Iceland. Clim Change 65:333–346
Arnalds O, Gudbergsson G, Gudmundsson J (2000) Carbon sequestration and reclamation of severely degraded soils in Iceland. Icel Agr Sci 13:87–97
Arnalds O, Hallmark CT, Wilding LP (1995) Andisols from four different regions of Iceland. Soil Sci Soc Am J 59:161–169
Bashkin MA, Binkley D (1998) Changes in soil carbon following afforestation in Hawaii. Ecology 79:828–833
Cassman KG, Munns DN (1980) Nitrogen mineralization as affected by soil moisture, temperature, and depth. Soil Sci Soc Am J 44:1233–1237
Chen CR, Condron LM, Davis MR, Sherlock RR (2003) Seasonal changes in soil phosphorus and associated microbial properties under adjacent grassland and forest in New Zealand. For Ecol Manage 177:539–557
Compton JE, Boone RD (2000) Long-term impacts of agriculture on soil carbon and nitrogen in New England forests. Ecology 81:2314–2330
Compton JE, Boone RD, Motzkin G, Foster DR (1998) Soil carbon and nitrogen in a pine-oak sand plain in central Massachusetts: role of vegetation and land-use history. Oecologia 116:536–542
Crews TE, Kitayama K, Fownes JH, Riley RH, Herbert DA (1995) Changes in soil phosphorus fractions and ecosystem dynamics across a long chronosequence in Hawaii. Ecology 76:1407–1424
Ellert BH, Bettany JR (1992) Temperature dependence of net nitrogen and sulfur mineralization. Soil Sci Soc Am J 56:1133–1141
Elmarsdóttir A, Aradóttir AL, Trlica MJ (2003a) Microsite availability and establishment of native species on degraded and reclaimed sites. J Appl Ecol 40:815–823
Elmarsdóttir A, Sigurdsson BD, Halldorsson G, Nielsen OK, Magnusson B (2003b) Áhrif skógræktar á lífríki. In: Proceedings of the Ráðunautafundur 2003, Icelandic, pp 107–111
Eyjólfsdóttir GG (2007) Áhrif skógræktar á sveppi. In: Proceedings of the Fræðaþing Landbúnaðarins 2007, Icelandic, pp 399–403
Fisher RF, Binkley D (2000) Ecology and management of forest soils, 3rd edn. Wiley, New York, pp 111–112
Gretarsdóttir J, Aradóttir AL, Vandvik V, Heegaard E, Birks HJB (2004) Long-term effects of reclamation treatments on plant succession in Iceland. Restor Ecol 12:268–278
Gudmundsson T, Björnsson H, Thorvaldsson G (2004) Organic carbon accumulation and pH changes in an Andic Gleysol under a long-term fertilizer experiment in Iceland. Catena 56:213–224
Ito S, Nakayama R, Buckley GP (2004) Effects of previous land-use on plant species diversity in semi-natural and plantation forests in a warm-temperate region in southeastern Kyushu, Japan. For Ecol Manage 196:213–225
Johnson DW (1992) Nitrogen retention in forest soils. J Environ Qual 21:1–12
Jónsson ThH, Óskarsson U (1996) Skógrækt og landgræðsla til að nema koltvísýring og andrúmslofti. In: Proceedings of the Ársrit Skógræktrarfélags Íslands 1996, Icelandic, pp 65–87
Jug A, Makeschin F, Rehfuess KE, Hofmann-Schielle C (1999) Short-rotation plantations of balsam poplars, aspen and willows on former arable land in the Federal Republic of Germany. III. Soil ecological effects. For Ecol Manage 121:85–99
Kimmins JP (2004) Forest ecology—a foundation for sustainable forest management and environmental ethics in forestry, 3rd edn. Prentice Hall, NJ, pp 71–129
Kleemola S, Forsius M (2006) Trend assessment of bulk deposition, throughfall and runoff water/soil water chemistry at ICP IM sites. In: Kleemola S, Forsius (eds) 15th annual report 2006. ICP integrated monitoring. Finnish Environment Institute, Helsinki, Finland, pp 49–55
Marschner H (1995) Mineral nutrition of higher plants, 2nd edn. Academic, London, UK
Miller HG (1981) Forest fertilisation: some guiding concepts. Forestry 54:157–167
Morisada K, Ono K, Kanomata H (2004) Organic carbon stock in forest soils in Japan. Geoderma 119:21–32
Óskarsson H, Arnalds O, Gudmundsson J, Gudbergsson G (2004) Organic carbon in Icelandic Andosols: geographical variation and impact of erosion. Catena 56:225–238
Óskarsson H, Sigurgeirsson A (2001) Fertilization in Icelandic afforestation: evaluation of results. Scand J For Res 16:536–540
Óskarsson H, Sigurgeirsson A, Raulund-Rasmussen K (2006) Survival, growth, and nutrition of tree seedlings fertilized at planting on Andisol soils in Iceland: six-year results. For Ecol Manage 229:88–97
Ovington JD, Magdewick HAI (1957) Afforestation and soil reaction. J Soil Sci 8:141–149
Pálmason F, Danso SKA, Hardarson G (1992) Nitrogen accumulation in sole andmixed stands of sweet-blue lupin (Lupinus angustifolius L.), ryegrass and oats. Plant Soil 142:135–142
Parfitt RL, Ross DJ, Coomes DA, Richardson SJ, Smale MC, Dahlgren RA (2005) N and P in New Zealand soil chronosequences and relationships with foliar N and P. Biogeochemistry 75:305–328
Parfitt RL, Salt GJ, Saggar S (2001) Post-harvest residue decomposition and nitrogen dynamics in Pinus radiata plantations of different N status. For Ecol Manage 154:55–67
Parfitt RL, Scott NA, Ross DJ, Salt GJ (2003) Land-use change effects on soil C and N transformations in soils of high N status: comparisons under indigenous forest, pine plantation and pasture. Biogeochemistry 66:203–221
Paul KI, Polglase PJ, Nyakuengama JG, Khanna PK (2002) Change in soil carbon following afforestation. For Ecol Manage 168:241–257
Pétursson JG (2001) Skógræktarstarfið 2000, tölulegar upplýsingar (Forestry 2000; numerical information). Icelandic For 2:82–84
Poudel DD, West LT (1999) Soil development and fertility characteristics of volcanic slope in Mindanao, the Philippines. Soil Sci Soc Am J 63:1258–1273
Prévosto B, Dambrine E, Moares C, Curt T (2004) Effects of volcanic ash chemistry and former agricultural use on the soils and vegetation of naturally regenerated woodlands in the Massif Central, France. Catena 56:239–261
Ritter E, Vesterdal L, Gundersen P (2003) Changes in soil properties after afforestation of former intensively managed soils with oak and Norway spruce. Plant Soil 249:319–330
Saito M (1990) Nitrogen mineralization parameters and its availability indices of soils in Tohoku district, their relationships. Jap J Soil Sci Plant Nutr (in Japanese with English abstract.) 61:265-272
Shoji S, Nanzyo M, Dahlgren R (1993) Volcanic ash soils. Elsevier, Amsterdam
Sigurdsson BD, Magnusson B, Elmarsdóttir A, Bjarnadóttir B (2005) Biomass and composition of understory vegetation and the forest floor carbon stock across Siberian larch and mountain birhc chronosequences in Iceland. Ann For Sci 62:881–888
Smith SE, Read DJ (2000) Mycorrhizal symbiosis, 2nd edn. Academic, London, UK
Snorrason A, Sigurdsson BD, Gudbergsson G, Svavarsdóttir K, Jónsson TH (2002) Carbon sequestration in forest plantations in Iceland. Icel Agr Sci 15:81–93
Stevenson BA (2004) Changes in phosphorus availability and nutrient status of indigenous forest fragments in pastoral New Zealand hill country. Plant Soil 262:317–325
Swift RS (2001) Sequestration of carbon by soil. Soil Sci 166:858–871
Tanner EVJ, Kapos V, Freskos S, Healey JR, Theobald AM (1990) Nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization of Jamaican montane forest trees. J Trop Ecol 6:231–238
Tanner EVJ, Vitousek PM, Cuevas E (1998) Experimental investigation of nutrient limitation of forest growth on wet tropical mountains. Ecology 79:10–22
UNFCCC (2001) The Marrakesh accords and the Marrakesh declaration. In: Proceedings of the seventh conference of the parties (COP) 7, Marrakesh, Morocco, FCCC/CP/2001/13 Add.1 (Annex, Section A), 29 October–9 November 2001
Vesterdal L, Ritter E, Gundersen P (2002) Change in soil organic carbon following afforestation of former arable land. For Ecol Manage 169:137–147
Walker TW, Syers JK (1976) The fate of phophorus during pedogenesis. Geoderma 15:1–19
Acknowledgements
The author wants to thank the members of her project group Gyða Eyjólfsdóttir, Guðmundur Halldórsson, Brynja Hrafnkelsdóttir and Edda S. Oddsdóttir for cooperation in the project, Bjarni D. Sigurdsson for comments in the early state of the work, and Þorsteinn Guðmundsson for a very helpful discussion of and comments on the manuscript. The research was financed by Rannís, the Science Fund of the Icelandic Research Council.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Hans Lambers.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ritter, E. Carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in volcanic soils following afforestation with native birch (Betula pubescens) and introduced larch (Larix sibirica) in Iceland. Plant Soil 295, 239–251 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-007-9279-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-007-9279-4