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Soil compaction and forest floor removal reduced microbial biomass and enzyme activities in a boreal aspen forest soil

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An Erratum to this article was published on 14 April 2015

Abstract

Soil enzymes are linked to microbial functions and nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems and are considered sensitive to soil disturbances. We investigated the effects of severe soil compaction and whole-tree harvesting plus forest floor removal (referred to as FFR below, compared with stem-only harvesting) on available N, microbial biomass C (MBC), microbial biomass N (MBN), and microbial biomass P (MBP), and dehydrogenase, protease, and phosphatase activities in the forest floor and 0–10 cm mineral soil in a boreal aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) forest soil near Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada. In the forest floor, no soil compaction effects were observed for any of the soil microbial or enzyme activity parameters measured. In the mineral soil, compaction reduced available N, MBP, and acid phosphatase by 53, 47, and 48%, respectively, when forest floor was intact, and protease and alkaline phosphatase activities by 28 and 27%, respectively, regardless of FFR. Forest floor removal reduced available P, MBC, MBN, and protease and alkaline phosphatase activities by 38, 46, 49, 25, and 45%, respectively, regardless of soil compaction, and available N, MBP, and acid phosphatase activity by 52, 50, and 39%, respectively, in the noncompacted soil. Neither soil compaction nor FFR affected dehydrogenase activities. Reductions in microbial biomass and protease and phosphatase activities after compaction and FFR likely led to the reduced N and P availabilities in the soil. Our results indicate that microbial biomass and enzyme activities were sensitive to soil compaction and FFR and that such disturbances had negative consequences for forest soil N and P cycling and fertility.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research and the Department of Renewable Resources at the University of Alberta for financial support in the form of a graduate scholarship to the senior author. Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI, through an equipment grant) also provided funding for this project. The Long-term Soil Productivity Study experiment in Dawson Creek Forest District, British Columbia, was also supported by funding from the Forest Investment Account and the Research Branch, British Columbia Ministry of Forests. We thank an anonymous reviewer and the Editor-in-Chief for helpful comments that improved an earlier version of the manuscript.

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  1. Xiao Tan

    Present address: Albian Sands Energy Inc., P.O. Box 5670, Hwy 63 North, Fort McMurray, AB, T9H 4W1, Canada

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, 442 Earth Sciences Building, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E3, Canada

    Xiao Tan & Scott X. Chang

  2. Ministry of Forests and Range, Dawson Creek, BC, V1G 4A4, Canada

    Richard Kabzems

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  1. Xiao Tan
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Correspondence to Scott X. Chang.

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An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00374-015-1014-3.

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Tan, X., Chang, S.X. & Kabzems, R. Soil compaction and forest floor removal reduced microbial biomass and enzyme activities in a boreal aspen forest soil. Biol Fertil Soils 44, 471–479 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-007-0229-3

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