Plot-scale spatial patterns of soil water content, pH, substrate-induced respiration and N mineralization in a temperate coniferous forest
Introduction
Spatial heterogeneity is a dominant and conspicuous feature of temperate forest soils. Accordingly, the distribution of soil-inhabiting biota generally exhibits strong spatial structure (e.g., Schenker, 1984, Lensi et al., 1991, Gonzalez and Zak, 1994, Görres et al., 1998). Although heterogeneity seems to be of functional importance for forest soil biota, e.g., responsible for their amazingly high diversity Anderson, 1978, Giller, 1996, more detailed information is still imperative for a deeper understanding and modeling purposes. Only few studies have explicitly quantified spatial scale and patterns, despite many attempts to characterize the phenomenon via some “degree” of clumping or aggregation (most notably by zoologists, e.g., Cancela da Fonseca and Stamou, 1982, Tousignant and Coderre, 1992). This may be due to the fact that adequate techniques for investigating spatial patterns have just recently found broader application in the biological sciences Rossi et al., 1992, Liebhold et al., 1993.
Geostatistics provide powerful analytical tools to capture the horizontal variability of a property and have encountered increasing interest by soil biologists in recent years (e.g., Fromm et al., 1993, Robertson et al., 1993, Wallace and Hawkins, 1994, Wallace et al., 1993, Smith et al., 1994, Rossi et al., 1997, Görres et al., 1998). In this study, we characterized the spatial heterogeneity of biotically driven forest soil properties together with potentially controlling variables in a temperate Norway spruce stand. Meaningful spatial statistics require a large sample size Webster, 1985, Webster and Oliver, 1992, so we limited our survey to four variables of overriding importance for microbiota and plant nutrition: microbial biomass (substrate-induced respiration, SIR), N mineralization (Nmin), water content (WC), and pH. The objectives of this study were (1) to search for patterns of spatial heterogeneity of these variables at the plot scale (range of meters); (2) to quantify and model these patterns using geostatistical techniques; and (3) to check for directional differences of the spatial distributions within the site, especially with respect to slope and stand characteristics.
Section snippets
Materials and methods
The study site was a Norway spruce (Picea abies) forest monoculture located near Gumpenstein, Styria, Austria (47°29′N, 14°7′E, 750 m above sea level), in the cool-temperate P. abies–Abies alba growth district of the Eastern Alps (Mayer, 1974). Mean annual temperatures and precipitation were 6.8°C and 1013 mm, respectively. The site was situated on a 15° inclined, west-facing slope. The forest stand was approximately 40 years old, and trees were even-aged. Tree density was 14 stems·100 m−2, and
Results
The means of each variable were approximately equal for the X-(parallel to the slope) and Y-(in slope direction) transect. Data variability (coefficient of variation, CV%) was low for the abiotic properties, high for SIR, and very high for Nmin. The variability did not differ substantially between transects, except for Nmin-X being more variable than Nmin-Y (Table 2). The WC and pH data sets did not deviate significantly from normality. The SIR and Nmin frequency distributions were more or less
Discussion
All studied properties of the spruce forest soil exhibited spatial structure. Spatial autocorrelation was an important feature of all variables, since the degree of spatially structured variance was generally high (60%–95% of sill variance) and the rate of stochastic variation accordingly low.
pH and SIR were isotropic at the site, i.e., their spatial structure did not change with transect direction. WC and Nmin exhibited a slight drift of means on the X-transect, perpendicular to the slope.
Acknowledgements
We are indebted to G. Eder, W. Hein, B. Krautzer, and the staff of the Federal Research Institute for Agriculture in Alpine Regions, Gumpenstein, Styria, for support during field work, and B. Vedder and E. Lummerstorfer for laboratory assistance. E. Christian carefully revised the manuscript, M. Stachowitsch provided linguistic help. We are grateful to them all.
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