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Hydrologic flowpaths influence inorganic and organic nutrient leaching in a forest soil

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Abstract

Hydrologic pathways through soil affect element leaching by determining the relative importance of biogeochemical processes such as sorption and decomposition. We used stable hydrogen isotopes of water (δD) to examine the influence of flowpaths on soil solution chemistry in a mature spruce–hemlock forest in coastal Oregon, USA. Soil solutions (50 cm depth, n = 13) were collected monthly for 1 year and analyzed for δD, major ions and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nitrogen (DON). We propose that the variability of δD can be used as an index of flowpath length and contact time. Throughfall variability in δD was much greater than soil solution variability, illustrating that soil solution integrates the variation in inputs. Lysimeters with greater variation in δD presumably have a greater proportion of flow through rapid flowpaths such as macropores. The variation in soil solution δD for individual lysimeters explained up to 53% of the variation in soil solution chemistry, and suggests that flowpaths influence leaching of some constituents. Soil solutions from lysimeters with greater δD variation had higher DOC and DON (r 2 = 0.51 and 0.37, respectively), perhaps because transport via macropores reduces interaction of DOM with the soil matrix. In contrast, nitrate concentrations were highest in lysimeters with a small variation in δD, where long contact time and low DOC concentrations may yield higher net nitrification. Our results demonstrate the utility of stable isotopes to link flowpaths and soil solution chemistry, and illustrate how the spatial complexity of soils can influence ecosystem-level nutrient losses.

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Acknowledgements

A Research Fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for Young Scientists allowed the first author to work in the United States. We thank Warren Evans, Toni Hoymann and Gail Heine for field assistance, and the Willamette Research Station staff for water chemistry analyses. Jacqueline Aitkenhead-Peterson and two anonymous reviewers provided many valuable suggestions for improving this paper. Renée Brooks, William Griffis and Warren Evans conducted the stable isotope analyses. We also thank Taro Uchida and Steven Perakis for valuable discussions. The U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station provided field site access. Climate data were provided by the Western Ecology Division, Office of Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, United States Environmental Protection Agency. The information in this article has been funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and approved for publication as an EPA document.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Division, The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University Forests, 1-1-1 Yayoi Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8657, Japan

    Yuko Asano

  2. Western Ecology Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Health and Environmental Effects Laboratory, 200 SW 35th St., Corvallis, OR, 97333, USA

    Jana E. Compton & M. Robbins Church

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  1. Yuko Asano
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  2. Jana E. Compton
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  3. M. Robbins Church
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Correspondence to Jana E. Compton.

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Asano, Y., Compton, J.E. & Church, M.R. Hydrologic flowpaths influence inorganic and organic nutrient leaching in a forest soil. Biogeochemistry 81, 191–204 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-006-9036-4

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