Effects of clear-cutting on decomposition rates of litter and forest floor in forests of British Columbia

Prescott, Cindy E.; Blevins, Leandra L; Staley, C L

doi:10.1139/x00-102

Cited by 112 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Collectively, these impacts suggest substantial alteration of carbon cycling in the soil, particularly the organic layer, for many years following forest harvesting. Litter bag decomposition experiments have yielded mixed results (Prescott, 2005), with some showing reduced decomposition rates and enzymatic activities because of forest harvesting (Prescott et al, 2000;Waldrop et al, 2003). However, litter bag experiments have not shown such long-term effects as the present study that is the first to provide evidence that, for at least 12 years after harvesting a forest, the genetic potential for biomass decomposition was diminished in the soil community.…”

Section: Forest Harvesting Has Long-term Effects On Biodegradation Pocontrasting

confidence: 51%

Forest harvesting reduces the soil metagenomic potential for biomass decomposition

et al. 2015

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Soil is the key resource that must be managed to ensure sustainable forest productivity. Soil microbial communities mediate numerous essential ecosystem functions, and recent studies show that forest harvesting alters soil community composition. From a long-term soil productivity study site in a temperate coniferous forest in British Columbia, 21 forest soil shotgun metagenomes were generated, totaling 187 Gb. A method to analyze unassembled metagenome reads from the complex community was optimized and validated. The subsequent metagenome analysis revealed that, 12 years after forest harvesting, there were 16% and 8% reductions in relative abundances of biomass decomposition genes in the organic and mineral soil layers, respectively. Organic and mineral soil layers differed markedly in genetic potential for biomass degradation, with the organic layer having greater potential and being more strongly affected by harvesting. Gene families were disproportionately affected, and we identified 41 gene families consistently affected by harvesting, including families involved in lignin, cellulose, hemicellulose and pectin degradation. The results strongly suggest that harvesting profoundly altered below-ground cycling of carbon and other nutrients at this site, with potentially important consequences for forest regeneration. Thus, it is important to determine whether these changes foreshadow long-term changes in forest productivity or resilience and whether these changes are broadly characteristic of harvested forests.

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Section: Forest Harvesting Has Long-term Effects On Biodegradation Pocontrasting

confidence: 51%

Forest harvesting reduces the soil metagenomic potential for biomass decomposition

et al. 2015

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“…Indeed, ground skidding has probably partially buried the forest floor into the mineral soil (Yanai et al, 2003) and the changes in ground climate resulting from canopy opening possibly accelerated litter decomposition (Prescott et al, 2000). The forest floor plays a major role in P nutrition (Jonard et al, submitted).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal trends in the foliar nutritional status of the French, Walloon and Luxembourg broad-leaved plots of forest monitoring

et al. 2009

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Abstract• Two decades after the launching of the monitoring program of forest ecosystems in Europe (ICP forests), a unique data set is now available regarding the foliar nutritional status of the main broadleaved species growing in much-diversified sites (soil, climate).• This study focuses on the foliar concentration time series (1993 to 2005) of the French (RENECO-FOR), Walloon and Luxemburg broad-leaved plots. The aim is to show long-term trends while taking the inter-plot and inter-annual variability into account.• Two kinds of statistical processing were used to analyze the data on foliar chemistry: principal component analysis (PCAs) and linear mixed models. In general, the main temporal trends reveal a decrease in the foliar P concentration and a decrease in the foliar Ca concentration, except for European beech on acid soils.• These temporal patterns confirm the trends previously observed and could be explained by the joint actions of several processes that influence tree nutrition in the long term: tree age, N and S deposition, harvesting and climate. Mots-clés :Quercus robur / Quercus petraea / Fagus sylvatica / analyse de tendance / phosphore Résumé -Évolution du statut nutritionnel foliaire des placettes de feuillus des réseaux français, wallon et luxembourgeois de suivi des forêts.• Deux décennies après le lancement du programme de suivi des écosystèmes forestiers en Europe (ICP forests), un jeu de données unique est à présent disponible concernant le statut nutritionnel foliaire des principales essences feuillues implantées dans des stations très diversifies du point de vue du sol et du climat.• Cette étude se focalise sur les séries chronologiques de teneurs foliaires (1993 à 2005) des placettes de feuillus de France, Wallonie et Luxembourg. L'objectif est de mettre en évidence la tendance à long-terme tout en prenant en compte la variabilité inter-placette et inter-annuelle.• Deux types de traitements statistiques ont été utilisés pour analyser les données de nutrition foliaire : l'analyse en composantes principales (ACP) et les modèles linéaires mixtes. Globalement, la tendance principale est une diminution généralisée de la teneur foliaire en P and une diminution de la teneur foliaire en Ca, sauf en ce qui concerne le hêtre sur sols acides.• Ces tendances temporelles confirment celles déjà observées par le passé et pourraient être expliquées par l'action combinée de différents processus influençant la nutrition des arbres à long-terme (vieillissement, dépôts azotés et soufrés, exploitation, fructification).

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“…In accordance with this, most LTSP Study sites so far lack detectable effects of harvesting treatments on tree regeneration or soil properties (Conlin and Driessche, 2000;Powers et al, 2005Powers et al, , 2012. Timberharvesting effects on hemicellulose degradation have never been directly investigated, but litter decomposition has previously been reported to be unaffected by harvesting in the IDF and sub-boreal spruce ecozones (Prescott et al, 2000). However, tree regeneration at these sites is in an early phase, and as the trees grow, changing factors will limit that growth.…”

Section: Harvesting Impacts On Hemicellulolytic Microbes Htc Leung Et Almentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term effects of timber harvesting on hemicellulolytic microbial populations in coniferous forest soils

et al. 2015

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Forest ecosystems need to be sustainably managed, as they are major reservoirs of biodiversity, provide important economic resources and modulate global climate. We have a poor knowledge of populations responsible for key biomass degradation processes in forest soils and the effects of forest harvesting on these populations. Here, we investigated the effects of three timber-harvesting methods, varying in the degree of organic matter removal, on putatively hemicellulolytic bacterial and fungal populations 10 or more years after harvesting and replanting. We used stable-isotope probing to identify populations that incorporated 13C from labeled hemicellulose, analyzing 13C-enriched phospholipid fatty acids, bacterial 16 S rRNA genes and fungal ITS regions. In soil microcosms, we identified 104 bacterial and 52 fungal hemicellulolytic operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Several of these OTUs are affiliated with taxa not previously reported to degrade hemicellulose, including the bacterial genera Methylibium, Pelomonas and Rhodoferax, and the fungal genera Cladosporium, Pseudeurotiaceae, Capronia, Xenopolyscytalum and Venturia. The effect of harvesting on hemicellulolytic populations was evaluated based on in situ bacterial and fungal OTUs. Harvesting treatments had significant but modest long-term effects on relative abundances of hemicellulolytic populations, which differed in strength between two ecozones and between soil layers. For soils incubated in microcosms, prior harvesting treatments did not affect the rate of incorporation of hemicellulose carbon into microbial biomass. In six ecozones across North America, distributions of the bacterial hemicellulolytic OTUs were similar, whereas distributions of fungal ones differed. Our work demonstrates that diverse taxa in soil are hemicellulolytic, many of which are differentially affected by the impact of harvesting on environmental conditions. However, the hemicellulolytic capacity of soil communities appears resilient.

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Effects of clear-cutting on decomposition rates of litter and forest floor in forests of British Columbia

Cited by 112 publications

References 16 publications

Forest harvesting reduces the soil metagenomic potential for biomass decomposition

Forest harvesting reduces the soil metagenomic potential for biomass decomposition

Temporal trends in the foliar nutritional status of the French, Walloon and Luxembourg broad-leaved plots of forest monitoring

Long-term effects of timber harvesting on hemicellulolytic microbial populations in coniferous forest soils

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