Vertical gradients of mineral elements in Pinus sylvestris crown in alkalised soil

Abstract

Alkalisation of soil has been assumed to be the principal cause of changes in vertical gradients of nutrients in Pinus sylvestris crown. The long-term influence of alkaline dust pollution (pHH2O 12.3-12.6) emitted from a cement plant on the element composition of soil and needles of Scots pine in different canopy layers was studied. In the polluted area, the pH of soils was >7, and high amounts of Ca, K and Mg were measured in the upper layers of soil (0-30 cm), while the mobility and solubility of some contaminants have decreased, nutrition processes have become complicated, and imbalance of mineral composition of trees was revealed. Reduced N and increased K, Ca and Mg concentrations in needles were observed in the heavily polluted area. Vertical gradients of elements and their ratios in canopies varied depending on the alkalisation level of soil. Needles on the upper-crown shoots had higher concentrations of N, C, Ca and Mg and lower concentrations of P and K compared to the lower layer of the crown. In the unpolluted area, higher concentrations of N, P, K and Ca were found in lower-crown needles and of C and Mg in needles at the top of the canopy. The P/N ratio below 0.125 indicated P deficiency in pines. The ratios N/Ca, N/Mg and N/K had significantly decreased, while the ratios Ca/Mg, K/Mg and K/Ca had a tendency to increase in heavily polluted sample plots. Magnitude of changes of element ratios indicates on the disbalances of availability and translocation of nutrients in the crown of trees.

Monitoring of heavy metals uptake and allocation in Pinus sylvestris organs in alkalised soil

“…However, Alloway (1995) supposed that soil pH does not play such a major role in the uptake of Cd, while its interaction with several other elements may have an essential role in the uptake and translocation Cd in plants. As cement dust, soils and pines growing in the vicinity of the cement plant contain Ca in high concentrations (Mandre et al 2008;Mandre 2009;Ots 2002) it can be to hypothesised that Ca may decrease the uptake, accumulation and translocation of Cd in the crown of pine. The same opinion is held by Österås and Greger (2003), who in their research proved that Ca reduces the accumulation of Cd in tissues of Norway spruce.…”

Effects of road dust on the growth characteristics of Sophora japonica L. seedlings

“…Simulated dusting caused leaf and stem N of cotton to decrease (Li, 2005). Cement dust caused a decline in needle N content of Pinus sylvestris (Mandre, 2009) and N content of wheat (Pandey and Sanjeev, 1996).Cement dust also decreased the dry mass of Picea abies (Ots et al, 2011) and the biomass of tomato and radish (Magray et al, 2013). Dust on street trees decreased the amounts of photosynthetic pigments (Prusty et al, 2005;Prajapati and Tripathi, 2008).…”

Vertical position of dry mass and elemental concentrations in Pinus sylvestris L. canopy under the different ash-nitrogen treatments

“…Most of the analyzed studies focused on nutrient concentrations in relation to biomass changes (Helmisaari 1992, Mandre 2009, Ots et al 2009. We aimed to analyze the needle N stocks in Scots pine stands to compare the impact of different treatments.…”

“…A number of researchers attempted to explain the gradients of various causal factors, including light and temperature conditions, the water status of foliage (Pearcy & Sims 1994, Niinemets et al 2007, Gebauer et al 2011, photosynthetic capacity (Han et al 2003, Marcelis & Heuvelink 2007, needle anatomy (Richardson et al 2001, Lukjanova & Mandre 2009 or the concentration of carbohydrates (Mandre et al 1998). The nutrient uptake and translocation mechanisms in the canopies of conifers growing both naturally and under stress conditions have been explored in several studies (Helmisaari 1992, Finér 1994, Mandre 2009, Ots et al 2009). Helmisaari (1992 found that the dry mass per needle is low in the lower part of the crown, possibly as a result of changes caused by light.…”

“…There were no significant differences in the nutrient concentrations between different crown layers (Helmisaari 1992, Ots et al 2009). Several studies were conducted on alkalized soils in Estonia to investigate vertical gradients of mineral elements in the pine canopy (Mandre 2009, Ots et al 2009). Mandre (2009 concluded that vertical gradients of elements and their ratios in pine canopies vary depending on the alkalization level of the soil.…”