2008 Joint Annual Meeting (5-9 Oct. 2008): Post-harvest Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics in a Loblolly Pine Plantation.
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788-7 Post-harvest Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics in a Loblolly Pine Plantation.



Thursday, 9 October 2008: 10:00 AM
George R. Brown Convention Center, 371D
Jose Zerpa1, H. Lee Allen2, Jennifer Phelan1 and Robert Campbell3, (1)North Carolina State University, North Carolina State Univ., 109 Barbary Court, Cary, NC 27511
(2)North Carolina State University, North Carolina State U., 225 Winding Ridge Drive, Cary, NC 27511
(3)Weyerhaeuser Co., Weyerhaeuser Co., PO Box 1391, New Bern, NC 28563-1391
High levels of available nitrogen in forest soils are common after harvest. This spike known as “the assart effect” has been attributed to post-harvest changes in water balance, temperature and plant uptake. Another explanation, recently proposed, is the decrease in microbial N immobilization which might occur if root exudates and other carbon sources are significantly reduced by the harvest. Forest systems accumulate significant amounts of carbon in the forest floor that could partially offset these changes in the carbon supply to soil microbes. A study was conducted in a loblolly pine plantation on the coastal plain of North Carolina to determine the effects of different levels of post-harvest forest floor retention on soil dissolved organic carbon, extractable nitrogen, and microbial biomass. Repeated measures analyses have shown significantly higher levels on all dependent variables for the treatment with highest retention of forest floor during the first year of the study.
See more of: Soil Dynamics in Forest Plantations
See more of: S07 Forest, Range & Wildland Soils