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Soil nutrient’s spatial variability in forest–tundra ecotones on the Kola Peninsula, Russia

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Abstract

This article addresses spatial variability in soil nutrients in altitudinal and latitudinal forest–tundra ecotones in the Kola Peninsula, Russia. Higher total carbon, nitrogen, and bio-available nutrients were found in the organic horizons of latitudinal ecotone against the background of lower nutrients in soil-forming rock. This is supposedly related to higher contribution of nutrient-rich plants in latitudinal ecotone and intense downward within-profile matter migration in the altitudinal ecotone. Elevated bio-available soil nutrients in spruce forests compared with birch forests and tundra sites, and in birch forests compared with tundra against the background of different trends in the soil-forming rock were attributed to the effects of predominant plants. The effects of predominant plants on soil nutrients were distinctly pronounced at the level of site patches. Soil-forming rock effects on soil nutrients were clear at the level of zones/belts and the whole ecotones. Strong negative correlations between the soil nutrients and altitudes were explained by replacement of vascular plants by low-ash lichens at higher elevations.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Research Council of Norway for financial support through grants to A. Hofgaard from the program OST, project 185023/S50; and program IPY, project 176065/S30. M. Orlova is also supported by Grant of President of the Russian Federation for Young Scientists (MK-4046.2011.4). N. Lukina is also supported by the project 10-04-00213a of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and by the “Biological diversity” Programme for basic research of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences. O. Tutubalina has been supported by the Leading Science Schools programme of Russian Federation, grant No. HШ 3405.2010.5 and Russian Scientific Educational Centres program  « HOЦ » , grant No. 14.740.11.0200. The authors also thank A. Mikheeva for help in preparing Fig. 1. The article is a product under the IPY core project PPS Arctic.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Forest Ecology and Productivity of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya Str., 84/32, 117997, Moscow, Russia

    Maria A. Orlova & Natalia V. Lukina

  2. Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University, Leninskiye Gory, 119992, Moscow, Russia

    Olga V. Tutubalina

  3. Institute of Mathematical Problems of Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institutskaya Str., 4, 142290, Puschino, Moscow, Russia

    Vadim E. Smirnov

  4. Institute of Industrial Problems of the North, Kola Science Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Fersmana Str., 14a, 184209, Apatity, Russia

    Ludmila G. Isaeva

  5. Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, P. O. Box 5685, 7485, Sluppen, Trondheim, Norway

    Annika Hofgaard

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  1. Maria A. Orlova
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Correspondence to Maria A. Orlova.

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Orlova, M.A., Lukina, N.V., Tutubalina, O.V. et al. Soil nutrient’s spatial variability in forest–tundra ecotones on the Kola Peninsula, Russia. Biogeochemistry 113, 283–305 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-012-9756-6

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