Quantifying Soil Response Following American Chestnut Restoration in Mixed Hardwood Forests.

The reintroduction of blight-resistant American chestnut (Castanea dentata) back into the eastern hardwood forest will result in changes to the biogeochemical cycles of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) and in ecosystem water availability because of differences in organic matter characteristics produced and in water use relative to the current forest vegetation. The direction and magnitude of change for each parameter will depend upon the characteristics of the current vegetation that chestnut will replace.  We have quantified differences in C and N in soil, forest floor, and litter, soil N mineralization rates, proportion of oxidizable C, soil moisture, and above-ground biomass C at an established plantation of American chestnut, inter-planted with known densities of black cherry (Prunus serotina) and northern red oak (Quercus rubra), created in 2007 at the Purdue University Martell Research Forest in Indiana, USA. Such quantification of changes to ecosystem biogeochemical cycles and water availability resulting from the re-introduction of chestnut are imperative to inform ecosystem models of carbon sequestration and economic valuation of carbon storage, and water yield models, as well as for watershed managers and municipalities tasked with the provision of fresh water from forested watersheds.  Results will be presented.