Plant recolonization of reclamation areas from patches of salvaged forest floor material

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caren E. Jones ◽  
Simon M. Landhäusser
2008 ◽  
Vol 172 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerstin Michel ◽  
Thomas Terhoeven-Urselmans ◽  
Renate Nitschke ◽  
Phillip Steffan ◽  
Bernard Ludwig

1993 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 605-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. E. Prescott ◽  
M.A. McDonald ◽  
G.F. Weetman

Availability of N and P was compared in the forest floors of old-growth forests of western red cedar (Thujaplicata Donn)and western hemlock (Tsugaheterophylla (Raf.) Sarg.) (CH forests), and second-growth forests of western hemlock and amabilis fir (Abiesamabilis (Dougl.) Forbes) (HA forests) of windthrow origin. Five samples of each forest floor layer (litter, fermentation (woody and nonwoody), and humus (woody and nonwoody)) were collected from three forests of each type (CH and HA). All layers of CH forest floors had smaller concentrations of total and extractable N and mineralized less N during 40-day aerobic incubations in the laboratory. Total and extractable P was lower in the litter layer of CH forest floors. Seedlings of western red cedar, Sitka spruce (Piceasitchensis (Bong.) Carr.), western hemlock, and amabilis fir grown from seed in forest floor material from CH forests grew more slowly and took up less N and P than did seedlings grown in HA forest floor material. The low supply of N and P in CH forest floors may contribute to the nutrient supply problems encountered by regenerating trees on cutovers of this forest type.


1978 ◽  
Vol 56 (21) ◽  
pp. 2730-2749 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. MacLean ◽  
Ross W. Wein

Weight loss and nutrient (N, P, K, Ca, Mg) changes with decomposition were examined over a 2-year period fora variety of kinds of litter on five forest sites. Litter types included pine needles, leaves of four deciduous species (red maple, pin cherry, trembling aspen, and white birch), branches of pine and four deciduous species, understory vegetation, and partially decomposed forest floor material, while the study sites consisted of jack pine stands aged 16, 29, and 57 years and mixed hardwood stands aged 7 and 29 years. Statistically significant differences in rate of weight loss were found to occur, with understory and leaf litter significantly faster on the hardwood stands than on the pine stands, understory litter faster on the 7-year-old hardwood stand than on the 29-year-old stand, and forest floor material faster on the 29-year-old pine stand than on the 57-year-old pine stand. Among the four deciduous species examined, significant differences in leaf weight loss also occurred, but differences among branch litter were nonsignificant. The mass of N in samples generally decreased with decomposition, with increases occurring in a few cases (i.e., pine understory and needle litter). Phosphorus mass generally increased on the pine sites and decreased on the hardwood sites; this appeared to be largely a function of the low initial P concentrations of litter on the pine sites. In general, the mass of K, Ca, and Mg decreased in the various samples with decomposition; the loss of K from deciduous leaves in this study was particularly fast and was greater than other values from the literature.


1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 593-600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cindy E. Prescott ◽  
John P. Corbin ◽  
Dennis Parkinson

Nutrient supply rate and limitation were measured in forest floors of lodgepole pine, white spruce–lodgepole pine, and Engelmann spruce–subalpine fir (pine, spruce, and fir forests, respectively) forests in the Kananaskis Valley of southwestern Alberta. Earlier analyses of the nutrient content of foliage and litter indicated low N and P supply in the pine forest, high P supply in the spruce forest, and high N–low P supply in the fir forest. Measurements of nutrient supply (insitu rates of net mineralization, extractable P, and uptake of N and P from the forest floor in pot trials) confirmed the differences in N and P supply among the forests and indicated that nutrient concentrations in needle litter were useful as an index of nutrient supply rate. Subtractive tests were useful in identifying the most limiting nutrients in each forest: lodgepole pine seedlings grown in forest floor material from the pine and spruce stands responded with increased growth to the addition of N; those in fir forest floor material responded to P addition. Vector analysis of N and P concentrations and contents in needles from trees fertilized with ammonium phosphate sulphate showed responses to both N and P in the pine site, no response at the spruce site, and response to P at the fir site.


1995 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 480-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael G. Shelton

Five forest floor weights (0, 10, 20, 30, and 40 Mg/ha), three forest floor compositions (pine, pine–hardwood, and hardwood), and two seed placements (forest floor and soil surface) were tested in a three-factorial, split-plot design with four incomplete, randomized blocks. The experiment was conducted in a nursery setting and used wooden frames to define 0.145-m2 subplots. Forest floor composition had no significant effect on emergence or establishment of loblolly pine (Pinustaeda L.) seedlings. Numbers of emerging and established seedlings displayed a negative exponential relationship with forest floor weight (fit indices of 0.62 and 0.62, respectively). Seed placement significantly affected the number of emerging seedlings (forest floor > soil surface) and their survival (forest floor < soil surface). However, seed placement had no overall significant effect on the number of established seedlings because effects on emergence and survival essentially canceled out. Germination of herbaceous seeds in the soil bank also displayed a negative exponential trend with forest floor weight (fit indices of 0.46 and 0.50 for the weight of grasses and forbs, respectively) and was not significantly affected by forest floor composition. Results indicate that forest floor composition is not a factor in the natural regeneration of the pine component of mixed pine–hardwood stands and suggest that when pine seed production is adequate, moderate amounts of forest floor material will improve pine seedling development because of suppression of herbaceous vegetation.


1991 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-241
Author(s):  
J. W. Fyles ◽  
I. H. Fyles ◽  
M. C. Feller

Nitrogen mineralization characteristics of the dominant types of organic matter in the forest floor of slash-burned sites were measured using a 26-week aerobic incubation. Six classes of forest floor material were distinguished on the basis of morphology and N mineralization characteristics. Fermentation layer materials, matted together with fungal hyphae, had a high content of total and potentially mineralizable N (N0) (7804 and 2816 μg/g, respectively) and mineralized the most N during incubation (1605 μg/g). Decayed wood had the lowest level of total N (1816 μg/g) and N0 (195 μg/g) and mineralized the least N (266 μg/g) despite a high inherent mineralization rate (k) (0.16). Humified materials (Hd and Hr) occupied a midrange, with the exception of those from thin residual horizons, which had high N0 values (2246–6009 μg/g) and low k-values (0.005–0.012). The significant differences in N mineralization among organic materials that are morphologically or ecologically distinct in the field suggest that it may be possible to assess site N fertility using intensive forest floor and soil survey data and information on the N characteristics of dominant horizon types.


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