Changes in Soil Nutrients in Long Term Soil Productivity Study in a Cherry-Maple Stand in West Virginia.

The Middle Mountain Long term Soil Productivity study was installed in a cherry- maple stand on the Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia  in 1997 to evaluate changes in above- and below-ground productivity over time, and as affected by varying levels of  Ca and Mg. Treatments include: Whole tree harvest (all aboveground woody biomass removed > 10-cm diameter); Whole-tree harvest +ammonium sulfate additions (WT+NS); whole-tree harvest + liming only (WT+Lime); whole-tree harvest + ammonium sulfate + liming (WT+NS+Lime); and no treatment (CTRL). There are 4 replications of each treatment. The site was extensively characterized prior to treatment initiation, including sampling of soils for nutrients and soil chemical properties. Soils for this high-elevation stand are loamy skeletal, mixed active Frigid  Spodic  Dystrudepts.  Soils have been resampled every 5 years to evaluate the effects of the treatments on soil properties. After 15 years of amendments, the FF mass in 2012 was less than in 1997, across all treatments.  The addition of lime, alone or in combination with fertilizer increased the forest floor concentration of Ca and Mg. A similar pattern was observed in the mineral B horizon.  Effects of fertilizer on N and C were not as consistent as liming effects.  Results from the first 15 years of this experiment will be presented and discussed.