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Impact of snowpack decrease on net nitrogen mineralization and nitrification in forest soil of northern Japan

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Abstract

Winter climate change is an important environmental driver that alters the biogeochemical processes of forest soils. The decrease in snowpack amplifies soil freeze–thaw cycles and decreases the snowmelt water supply to soil. This study examined how snow decrease affects nitrogen (N) mineralization and nitrification in forest soil in northern Japan by conducting an in situ experimental snowpack manipulation experiment and a laboratory incubation of soil with different moisture, temperature and freeze–thaw magnitudes. For the incubation studies, surface mineral soil (0–10 cm) was collected from a cool-temperate natural mixed forest and incubated using the resin core method during the winter. In the field, there were two treatments: 50 and 100 % snow removal and control plots. The increase in the soil freeze–thaw cycle increased net N mineralization and marginally decreased the net nitrification in soil. The dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and DOC/DON ratio in soil increased with the decrease in snowpack especially during the snow melt period. These results suggested that the change in substrate quality by the increase in freeze–thaw cycles caused the significant enhancement of microbial ammonium production in soil. The lower soil moisture and higher gross immobilization of inorganic N by soil microbes may be maintaining the slow net nitrification and low nitrate leaching in freeze–thaw cycles with less snowpack. The results indicate that winter climate change would strongly impact N biogeochemistry through the increase in ammonium availability in soil for plants and microbes, whereas it would be unlikely that nitrate loss from surface soil would be enhanced.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the graduate students and technical staff of the Northern Forestry Research and Development Office and the Uryu Experimental Forest, Forest Research Center, Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University for help conducting the snowpack manipulation and field work. Uryu Experimental Forest is a part of North Hokkaido Experimental Forest, a core-site of Japan Long-Term Ecological Research Network (JaLTER). This study is partly supported by research funds (22248016, 25252026) of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and the Environmental research and technology development fund (S-9-3) of the Ministry of the Environment, Japan. This study was conducted as a part of the research project, “ReSIN; regional and comparative soil incubation study on nitrogen dynamics in forest ecosystems”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, N9, W9, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, 060-0809, Japan

    H. Shibata, T. Watanabe & K. Fukuzawa

  2. Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

    Y. Hasegawa

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  1. H. Shibata
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  2. Y. Hasegawa
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  3. T. Watanabe
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  4. K. Fukuzawa
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Correspondence to H. Shibata.

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Shibata, H., Hasegawa, Y., Watanabe, T. et al. Impact of snowpack decrease on net nitrogen mineralization and nitrification in forest soil of northern Japan. Biogeochemistry 116, 69–82 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-013-9882-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-013-9882-9

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