Mineralisation of nitrogen in a chronosequence of rehabilitated bauxite mines

Soil Research ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 435 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. C. L. Todd ◽  
M. A. Adams ◽  
P. F. Grierson

Mine site rehabilitation should aim to establish quickly and maintain the processes of nutrient cycling at rates comparable with, or approaching, those of native forests. Current management strategies for rehabilitating bauxite mines and other mine sites in Australia usually include planting fast-growing understorey species at high densities and applying fertiliser. We provide the first detailed study of nitrogen (N) availability and N transformations (mineralisation/immobilisation) in such rehabilitated mine sites. Mean concentrations of NO3– (0–5 cm) in a chronosequence (7, 13, 22, and 27 years old) of rehabilitated mine sites ranged from 0.5 to 1.3 kg/ha, and NH4+ from 4.0 to 9.5 kg/ha. In burnt and unburnt native jarrah (E. marginata Donn ex. Smith) forests adjacent to the mine site, mean NO3– concentrations in surface soil (0–5 cm) were 0.8 kg/ha (burnt) and 1.1 kg/ha (unburnt), and mean NH4+ concentrations were 6.8 kg/ha (burnt) and 7.8 kg/ha (unburnt). Concentration of NH4+ at 0–5 cm was strongly related to soil water content (R2 = 0.69, P < 0.05) in rehabilitation sites, but not at 5–10 cm depth. Rates of N mineralisation (0–5 cm) in rehabilitation sites ranged from 34 to 52 kg/ha.year, of the same order as rates in native forest soil. In all rehabilitation and native forest sites, rates of N mineralisation were significantly related to rates of N-uptake at both 0–5 and 5–10 cm depth (R2 > 0.63, P < 0.05). Soil C/N ratios (0–5 cm) in rehabilitation sites ranged from 22.4 to 38.8, and in native forests from 35.6 (burnt) to 40.3 (unburnt). Soil C/N ratios increased with depth in both rehabilitation and native forest sites (ranged from 31.2 to 51.6). Availability of water was the major determinant of nitrogen availability in this strongly Mediterranean climate.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felipe Aburto ◽  
Oscar Crovo ◽  
Maria Fernanda Albornoz ◽  
Randal Southard

&lt;p&gt;Native forest substitution by intensively managed tree plantations can significantly alter carbon and nutrient biogeochemical cycling due to changes in forest dynamics and alterations on biogeochemical fluxes. To evaluate the magnitude of these alterations, we quantify the main C, N, and P pools and fluxes in paired plots established in secondary deciduous native forests and exotic pine plantation plots in five contrasting soils. Forest main fluxes were monitored for two years. We quantified total biomass and biomass C and nutrient pools, litterfall production, litter decomposition, soil CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; efflux, LAI, and annual root production. Besides, DOC, Nitrate, Ammonium, and DTP was determined on leachates.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Overall ecosystem C storage (soil and aboveground biomass) showed no differences between forest types across sites (p=0.07). However, two of the soil types displayed significantly higher C pools in the native forest sites. Besides, most native forest sites have higher total aboveground N and P stocks. Nitrate and ammonium leachate losses tend to be higher in native forests, but not significantly. On the contrary, phosphate losses were higher in plantations. Native forests and plantations differ on their annual C fluxes, particularly on their root and DOC productions. Native forests showed a significantly higher annual root production (1.76 &amp;#177; 0.99 Mg ha&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;) than pine plantations (0.81 &amp;#177;0.88 Mg ha&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;) (p=0.0001). Of the Measured variables, only root production showed a positive correlation (R&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; = 0.49) with soil total C (p=0.001). Exotic pine plantations display higher litterfall but a significantly lower root production modifying the main source of carbon to the system. Also, DOC losses increased considerably under plantations. Continuous monitoring of these pair plots will help to address the potential long term effect of this land-use change and the relative sensitivity of these systems to changes in environmental conditions.&lt;/p&gt;


2007 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 1051-1060 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avacir Casanova Andrello ◽  
Carlos Roberto Appoloni ◽  
Virgílio Franco do Nascimento Filho

The aim of this work was to assess the soil erosion process in native forest by the 137Cs methodology. The mass balance model was applied to assess the rates of soil loss in three native forests around of Londrina city, Paraná, Brazil. 137Cs distribution depth was of exponential type for the three forests and 137Cs inventory was 241 Bq m-2 for Mata 1, 338 Bq m-2 for Mata 2 and 325 Bq m-2 for Mata UEL. The soil loss value calculated for three native forests was: 6,684 kg ha-1 yr-1 for Mata 1, 1,788 kg ha-1 yr-1 for Mata 2 and 4,524 kg ha-1 yr-1 for Mata UEL.


2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 6993-7015 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Nyberg ◽  
A. Bargués Tobella ◽  
J. Kinyangi ◽  
U. Ilstedt

Abstract. Soil degradation is commonly reported in the tropics where forest is converted to agriculture. Much of the native forest in the highlands of western Kenya has been converted to agricultural land in order to feed the growing population, and more land is being cleared. In tropical Africa, this land use change results in progressive soil degradation, as the period of cultivation increases. Sites that were converted to agriculture at different times can be evaluated as a chronosequence; this can aid in our understanding of the processes at work, particularly those in the soil. Both levels and variation of infiltration, soil carbon and other parameters are influenced by management within agricultural systems, but they have rarely been well documented in East Africa. We constructed a chronosequence for an area of western Kenya, using two native forest sites and six fields that had been converted to agriculture for varying lengths of time. We assessed changes in infiltrability (the steady-state infiltration rate), soil C and N, bulk density, δ13C, and the proportion of macro- and microaggregates in soil along a 119 yr chronosequence of conversion from natural forest to agriculture. Infiltration, soil C and N, decreased rapidly after conversion, while bulk density increased. Median infiltration rates fell to about 15 % of the initial values in the forest and C and N values dropped to around 60 %, whilst the bulk density increased by 50 %. Despite high spatial variability in infiltrability, these parameters correlated well with time since conversion and with each other. Our results indicate that landscape planners should include wooded elements in the landscape in sufficient quantity to ensure water infiltration at rates that prevent runoff and erosion. This should be the case for restoring degraded landscapes, as well as for the development of new agricultural areas.


1993 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 541 ◽  
Author(s):  
LM Egerton-Warbuton ◽  
BJ Griffin ◽  
BB Lamont

Selection for aluminium (Al) tolerance was assessed by studying pollen-pistil interactions in Eucalyptus calophylla trees colonising a 30-year-old abandoned coal mine-site (soil pH 4.3) compared with E. calophylla trees on an adjacent forest-site (soil pH 5.3). Energy-dispersive X-ray micro-analysis of reproductive tissues demonstrated that low levels of Al occurred in the stigma, lower style and unfertilised ovules of forest-site flowers. In contrast, significantly higher levels of Al were detected in all reproductive tissues of mine-site flowers. Al concentrations were higher at the base of the style than in the stigma. Al was also detected in stigmatic exudates of mine-site flowers. Selection for Al tolerance occurred in the anther of mine-site flowers as pollen from mine-site flowers germinated six-fold (15.6%) compared with forest-site pollen (2.6%) at the highest concentration of Al (22 ppm) used. However, the rate of pollen tube growth was not significantly different between mine- and forest-sites at any Al concentration. Tolerance of Al by the mine-site pollen was not shared by the progeny as there was no increase in the survival or growth of mine-site seedlings in mine soils over forest-site seedlings. Controlled pollinations between mine-/forest-site pollen and mine-site pistils demonstrated that there was no significant difference in the number of mine- or forest-site pollen tubes at any level in the style in mine-site pistils. Pollen tube abnormalities principally occurred in mine-site pistils. We concluded that there is no evidence yet for a genetically-based tolerance of Al in E. calophylla on coal mining soils.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Andrea Osinaga ◽  
Carina Rosa Álvarez ◽  
Miguel Angel Taboada

Abstract. Abstract. The sub-humid Chaco region of Argentina, originally covered by dry sclerophyll forest, has been subjected to clearing since the end of the '70 and replacement of the forest by no till farming. Land use changes produced a decrease in aboveground carbon stored in forests, but little is known about the impact on soil organic C stocks. The aim of this study was to evaluate soil C stocks and C fractions up to 1 m depth in soils under different land use:  20 yr continuous cropping, warm season grass pasture and native forest in 32 sites distributed over the Chaco region. The organic C stock content up to 1 m depth expressed as equivalent mass varied as follows: forest (119.3 Mg ha−1) > pasture (87.9 Mg ha−1) > continuous cropping (71.9 and 77.3 Mg ha−1), with no impact of the number of years under cropping. The most sensitive organic carbon fraction was the coarse particle fraction (2000 μm–212 μm) at 0–5 cm and 5–20 cm depth layers. Resistant carbon (


Mycorrhiza ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 749-759
Author(s):  
Zerihun Belay ◽  
Mesele Negash ◽  
Janne Kaseva ◽  
Mauritz Vestberg ◽  
Helena Kahiluoto

Abstract The rapid conversion of native forests to farmland in Ethiopia, the cradle of biodiversity, threatens the diversity of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) pivotal to plant nutrition and carbon sequestration. This study aimed to investigate the impact of this land-use change on the AMF species composition and diversity in southern Ethiopia. Soil samples were collected from nine plots in each of three land-use types: native forest, agroforestry, and khat monocropping. The plots of the three land-use types were located adjacent to each other for each of the nine replicates. Three 10 × 10m subplots per plot were sampled. AMF spores were extracted from the soil samples, spore densities were determined, and species composition and diversity were evaluated through morphological analysis. Both spore density and species richness were statistically significantly higher in the native forest than in the agroforestry plots with no clear difference to khat, whereas the true diversity (exponential of Shannon–Wiener diversity index) did not differ among the three land-use types due to high evenness among the species in agroforestry. In total, 37 AMF morphotypes belonging to 12 genera in Glomeromycota were found, dominated by members of the genera Acaulospora and Glomus. The highest isolation frequency index (78%) was recorded for Acaulospora koskei from native forest. Consequently, the agroforestry system did not appear to aid in preserving the AMF species richness of native forests relative to perennial monocropping, such as khat cultivation. In contrast, the native forest areas can serve as in situ genetic reserves of mycorrhizal symbionts adapted to the local vegetative, edaphic, and microbial conditions.


Soil Research ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 42 (7) ◽  
pp. 719 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. T. Moroni ◽  
P. J. Smethurst ◽  
G. K. Holz

Several soil analyses were used to estimate available N in surface soils (0–10 cm) over a 2-year period at 5 sites that supported 1- to 4-year-old Eucalyptus nitens plantations, and once in subsoils (10–120 cm) at 3 of these sites. Soils were derived from basalt (1 site previously pasture, 1 Pinus radiate, and 2 native forest) or siltstone (previously native forest). Soil analyses examined were total N, total P, total C, anaerobically mineralisable N (AMN), hot KCl-extractable N (hot KCl-N), and NH4+ and NO3– in soil solution and KCl extracts. AMN, KCl-extractable NH4+ and NO3–, and soil solution NH4+ and NO3– varied considerably with time, whereas hot KCl-N, total N, total P, and total C were temporally stable except for a gradual decline in total C with time at one site. Only total P was correlated with net N mineralisation (NNM) across all sites (r2 = 0.91, P < 0.05, n = 5). At 2–3 years after planting, soil solution and KCl-extractable NO3– dropped below 0.1 mm N and 1 μg N/g soil, respectively, at sites with NNM ≤24 kg N/ha.year (n = 3). Sites with NNM ≤24 kg N/ha.year also had ≤0.8 Mg P/ha. Although concentrations of indices of soil N availability decreased with depth, the contribution of subsoil (10–120 cm depth) to total profile N availability was estimated to be at least twice that of the top 10 cm. At an ex-pasture site, high concentrations of mineral N were found at 75–105 cm depths (KCl-extractable N, 289.3 μg N/g soil; 2.8 mm mineral N in soil solution), which may have become available to plantations as their root systems developed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 849-878 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quazi Z. Rasool ◽  
Jesse O. Bash ◽  
Daniel S. Cohan

Abstract. Soils are important sources of emissions of nitrogen-containing (N-containing) gases such as nitric oxide (NO), nitrous acid (HONO), nitrous oxide (N2O), and ammonia (NH3). However, most contemporary air quality models lack a mechanistic representation of the biogeochemical processes that form these gases. They typically use heavily parameterized equations to simulate emissions of NO independently from NH3 and do not quantify emissions of HONO or N2O. This study introduces a mechanistic, process-oriented representation of soil emissions of N species (NO, HONO, N2O, and NH3) that we have recently implemented in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. The mechanistic scheme accounts for biogeochemical processes for soil N transformations such as mineralization, volatilization, nitrification, and denitrification. The rates of these processes are influenced by soil parameters, meteorology, land use, and mineral N availability. We account for spatial heterogeneity in soil conditions and biome types by using a global dataset for soil carbon (C) and N across terrestrial ecosystems to estimate daily mineral N availability in nonagricultural soils, which was not accounted for in earlier parameterizations for soil NO. Our mechanistic scheme also uses daily year-specific fertilizer use estimates from the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC v0509) agricultural model. A soil map with sub-grid biome definitions was used to represent conditions over the continental United States. CMAQ modeling for May and July 2011 shows improvement in model performance in simulated NO2 columns compared to Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) satellite retrievals for regions where soils are the dominant source of NO emissions. We also assess how the new scheme affects model performance for NOx (NO+NO2), fine nitrate (NO3) particulate matter, and ozone observed by various ground-based monitoring networks. Soil NO emissions in the new mechanistic scheme tend to fall between the magnitudes of the previous parametric schemes and display much more spatial heterogeneity. The new mechanistic scheme also accounts for soil HONO, which had been ignored by parametric schemes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 4779-4796 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haicheng Zhang ◽  
Daniel S. Goll ◽  
Stefano Manzoni ◽  
Philippe Ciais ◽  
Bertrand Guenet ◽  
...  

Abstract. Microbial decomposition of plant litter is a crucial process for the land carbon (C) cycle, as it directly controls the partitioning of litter C between CO2 released to the atmosphere versus the formation of new soil organic matter (SOM). Land surface models used to study the C cycle rarely considered flexibility in the decomposer C use efficiency (CUEd) defined by the fraction of decomposed litter C that is retained as SOM (as opposed to be respired). In this study, we adapted a conceptual formulation of CUEd based on assumption that litter decomposers optimally adjust their CUEd as a function of litter substrate C to nitrogen (N) stoichiometry to maximize their growth rates. This formulation was incorporated into the widely used CENTURY soil biogeochemical model and evaluated based on data from laboratory litter incubation experiments. Results indicated that the CENTURY model with new CUEd formulation was able to reproduce differences in respiration rate of litter with contrasting C : N ratios and under different levels of mineral N availability, whereas the default model with fixed CUEd could not. Using the model with flexible CUEd, we also illustrated that litter quality affected the long-term SOM formation. Litter with a small C : N ratio tended to form a larger SOM pool than litter with larger C : N ratios, as it could be more efficiently incorporated into SOM by microorganisms. This study provided a simple but effective formulation to quantify the effect of varying litter quality (N content) on SOM formation across temporal scales. Optimality theory appears to be suitable to predict complex processes of litter decomposition into soil C and to quantify how plant residues and manure can be harnessed to improve soil C sequestration for climate mitigation.


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