Soil Carbon and Nutrient Pools in Three Adjacent Forest Ecosystems

TL;DRAbstract

Soil carbon (C) and nutrient pools were assessed for adjacent natural forest (NF), first rotation (1R) (50year-old), and second rotation (2R) (1-year-old) hoop pine plantations in southeast Queensland.Five transects spaced 3 m apart with 9 sampling points along each transect were selected (9.6 m x 12.0 m each site), with 45 soil cores (7.5 cm in diameter) collected and separated into 0-10 and 10-20 cm depths.These soils were analysed for total C, total nitrogen (N), C ( 13 C) and N ( 15 N) isotope composition.The 0-10 cm soils were analysed for pH, CEC, exchangeable cations, total P and total K, and assayed for microbial biomass C and N, respiration, metabolic quotient, potentially mineralizable N (PMN), gross N mineralization (M) and immobilization (I).Total C and N in 0-10 cm soils were higher under NF and 1R plantation than under 2R plantation, while they were highest in 10-20 cm soils under NF, followed by the 1R and then 2R plantation. 13 C was lower under NF than under the planta

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