Forest soil biotic communities show few responses to wood ash applications at multiple sites across Canada

Autor: Emily Smenderovac, Caroline Emilson, Teresita Porter, Dave Morris, Paul Hazlett, Amanda Diochon, Nathan Basiliko, Nicolas Bélanger, John Markham, P. Michael Rutherford, Ken van Rees, Trevor Jones, Lisa Venier
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Scientific Reports, Vol 12, Iss 1, Pp 1-13 (2022)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2045-2322
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-07670-x
Popis: Abstract There is interest in utilizing wood ash as an amendment in forestry operations as a mechanism to return nutrients to soils that are removed during harvesting, with the added benefit of diverting this bioenergy waste material from landfill sites. Existing studies have not arrived at a consensus on what the effects of wood ash amendments are on soil biota. We collected forest soil samples from studies in managed forests across Canada that were amended with wood ash to evaluate the effects on arthropod, bacterial and fungal communities using metabarcoding of F230, 16S, 18S and ITS2 sequences as well as enzyme analyses to assess its effects on soil biotic function. Ash amendment did not result in consistent effects across sites, and those effects that were detected were small. Overall, this study suggests that ash amendment applied to managed forest systems in amounts (up to 20 Mg ha−1) applied across the 8 study sties had little to no detectable effects on soil biotic community structure or function. When effects were detected, they were small, and site-specific. These non-results support the application of wood ash to harvested forest sites to replace macronutrients (e.g., calcium) removed by logging operations, thereby diverting it from landfill sites, and potentially increasing stand productivity.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals
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