The Effects of Land-use History on Soil Properties and Nutrient Dynamics in Northern Hardwood Forests of the Adirondack Mountains

Disturbance Legacy on Soil Carbon Stocks and Stability within a Coastal Temperate Forest of Southwestern British Columbia, Canada

“…Despite differences in species composition between the forests, the SOC content of the solum is similar between the study of Grand and Lavkulich (2011) and this study, and corroborates that low magnitude disturbance of old-growth forest might not have a critical long term legacy effect on SOC content compared to high magnitude disturbances, despite changes in species composition. Similar to our study, Latty et al (2004) found that old-growth forest soils had higher total C than severely disturbed forest (historically logged and then burned). Their "severely disturbed" forest could be compared to our alder forest.…”

“…Yet the soils of the mixed and coniferous forests were characterized by higher Al concentrations in the mineral horizons and higher concentrations of stable SOC. Although we compared different species compositions, our results agree with Latty et al (2004) and Nave et al (2010), who compared different forest ecosystems with the same overstory species composition and suggested that mature forests with an history of minimal disturbance have the potential to sequester a larger quantity of recalcitrant SOC than do seral forests. We found that there was more recalcitrant SOC per gram of soil in the surface Ah horizon than in the subsoil horizons of the alder forest (result not shown).…”

“…fulvic acid) resulting from Douglas-fir litter decomposition might become mobile and thus contribute to the accumulation of SOC in the lower Bf 1 horizon (Kalbitz & Kaiser, 2007). Consistent with Latty et al (2004), our results suggest that changes in species composition following disturbance events, may lead to changes in litter quality that can further impact SOC storage. Interpreting the values of C:N ratio in the light of past disturbances is complex in this study because of the change in species composition and large biological differences between red alder and conifers.…”

“…Their "severely disturbed" forest could be compared to our alder forest. Latty et al (2004) showed that even low severity disturbances left legacies on ecosystem processes that were detected nearly 100 years later, which does not seem to be the case in this study. Further, Hobley et al (2015) suggested that the storage of SOC near the surface was driven predominately by climate, while at depth the influence of climate waned and soil factors and disturbance history became more important.…”

“…Latty et al (2004) showed that in some forest ecosystems, past disturbances left long-term legacy effects on SOC storage. Thus, information on disturbance history is required to improve our understanding of SOC storage and dynamics in temperate forest ecosystems.…”