《Effect of forest thinning on soil net nitrogen mineralization and nitrification in a Cryptomeria japonica plantation in Taiwan》.pdfVIP

Journal of Forestry Research (2014) 25(3): 571−578 DOI 10.1007/s11676-014-0496-4 ORIGINAL PAPER Effect of forest thinning on soil net nitrogen mineralization and nitrifi- cation in a Cryptomeria japonica plantation in Taiwan Shunyao Zhuang •Jin Wang • Xiao Sun • Mingkuang Wang Received: 2013-04-07; Accepted: 2013-06-07 © Northeast Forestry University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014 Abstract: We investigated the effect of forest thinning on soil nitrogen mineralization, nitrification and transformation in a Cryptomeria japoni- ca plantation at high elevation to provide basic data for forest manage- Introduction ment. We chose four study plots for control, light, medium and heavy thinning treatment, and three sub-plots for buried bag studies at similar Nitrogen (N) is a major limiting factor for forest growth and elevations in each treatment plot to measure the net N mineralization and productivity of the terrestrial ecosystem (Keeney 1980; Binkley nitrification rates in situ. The contents of soil inorganic N (ammonium and Hart 1989; Paul and Clark 1989; Vitousek and Howarth and nitrate) were similar between treatments, but all varied with season, 1991). Plants absorb N mainly in inorganic forms that can be reaching maxima in September 2003 and 2004. The seasonal maximum converted from soil organic N through the process of mineraliza- net Nmin rates after four treatments were 0.182, 0.246, 0.303 and 0.560 tion. Natural or anthropogenic disturbances can affect forest soil -1 -1 -1 -1 mg⋅kg ⋅d in 2003, and 0.242，0.258，0.411 and 0.671 mg⋅kg ⋅d in 2004, ecosystems and soil N transformation processes both in