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Response of soil microbial communities to management strategies for enhancing Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) establishment on heather (Calluna vulgaris) moorland

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Abstract

Active management to encourage the expansion of native pine woodland onto neighbouring moorland has been suggested as a tool to promote increases in forest area to combat climate change. Low intensity burning has previously been shown to increase pine seedling establishment, however the effect of this on below-ground diversity and functioning in these important terrestrial carbon stores is equivocal. Here, we assessed the effect of a single burn and grazing exclosures after a 6 year period on soil microbial respiratory activity and fungal community structure using terminal restriction fragment polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis. The combined data suggest that the strategy of a single prescribed burn to facilitate Scots pine establishment had no lasting effect on either fungal taxonomic richness, fungal community composition or microbial activity. Thus, our findings support the proposed use of single, low intensity, prescribed burns in regenerating Scots pine forests as a low impact management tool.

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Abbreviations

T-RFLP:

Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism

TRF:

Terminal restriction fragment

SIR:

Substrate induced respiration

NAGA:

N-acetyl glucosamine

GABA:

γ-aminobutyric acid

ITS:

Internal transcribed spacer region

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award (NJAC), an ARC Discovery Projects Grant (JWGC), an ARC Linkage International Awards Grant (JWGC and ICA) and a Macaulay Development Trust collaboration grant (ICA). NJAC also acknowledges the UWS Centre for Plant and Food Science for providing additional scholarship funding. The Macaulay Institute is supported by the Scottish Government. We are grateful the scientific cooperation of SNH and RSPB at Abernethy Nature Reserve.

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  1. Centre for Plants and the Environment, University of Western Sydney, Parramatta Campus, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South, DC, NSW 1797, Australia

    Nathalie J. A. Curlevski, Rebekka R. E. Artz, Ian C. Anderson & John W. G. Cairney

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  1. Nathalie J. A. Curlevski
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  2. Rebekka R. E. Artz
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  3. Ian C. Anderson
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  4. John W. G. Cairney
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Correspondence to John W. G. Cairney.

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Curlevski, N.J.A., Artz, R.R.E., Anderson, I.C. et al. Response of soil microbial communities to management strategies for enhancing Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) establishment on heather (Calluna vulgaris) moorland. Plant Soil 339, 413–424 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-010-0593-x

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