1. Home
  2. Vol 7, No 1 (2017)
  3. Baldos

Soil Nitrogen Dynamics in a Mixed-Species Tree Plantation and a Lowland Secondary Forest

Angelica P. Baldos, Randy Alfabete Villarin

Abstract


Reforestation has been recognized as one of the strategies in climate change mitigation not only for its potential for carbon sequestration but also in restoring ecosystem functions and services. This study aimed to compare the rates of net nitrogen (N) mineralization and net nitrification in a mixed-species tree plantation and that of a secondary lowland forest. It also aimed to assess the potential of reforestation using the mixed-species strategy in restoring a key ecosystem function, particularly soil N cycling. The study was conducted within the Visayas State University campus in Baybay City, Leyte in two land uses, a lowland secondary forest and a mixed-species tree plantation established using the Rainforestation approach. No significant differences were found in extractable mineral N (NH4+ and NO3-) and net rates of N mineralization and nitrification between the mixed-species tree plantation and lowland secondary forest implying that N availability is similar for both the mixed-species tree plantation and the lowland secondary forest. Similar net rates of N mineralization and net nitrification for both sites suggest that they have the same rate of converting N to mineralized form which indicates that this mixed-species reforestation strategy may have potential to restore this ecosystem function, the soil N cycle. Further investigations are needed to evaluate the effects of species mixture and planting design on the soil N cycle as well as conducting similar studies on other sites under different conditions.

Keywords


soil nitrogen dynamics, net rate of nitrogen mineralization, net nitrification, mixed-species tree plantation, lowland tropical secondary forest

References


Ambus, P., & Christensen, S. (1994). Measurement of N2O emissions from a fertilised grassland: An analysis of spatial variability. Journal of Geophysical Research, 99, 16549–16556.

Arneth, A., Harrison, S. P., Zaehle, S., Tsigaridis, K., Menon, S., Bartlein, P. J. et al. (2010). Terrestrial biogeochemical feedbacks in the climate system. Nature Geoscience, 3(8), 525–532.

Asio, V. B. (1996). Characteristics, weathering, formation, and degradation of soils from volcanic rocks in Leyte, Philippines. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Hohenheim, Germany.

Baldos, A. (2014). Soil nitrogen cycling and long-term fates of nitrogen in montane forests along a 1000-m to 3000-m elevation gradient in the Ecuadorian Andes. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Goettingen, Germany.

Baldos, A. P., Corre, M. D., & Veldkamp, E. (2015). Response of N cycling to nutrient inputs in forest soils across a 1000–3000 m elevation gradient in the Ecuadorian Andes. Ecology, 96(3), 749–761.

Berthrong, S. T., Jobbagy, E. G., & Jackson, R. B. (2009). A global meta-analysis of soil exchangeable cations, pH, carbon, and nitrogen with afforestation. Ecological Applications, 19, 2228–2241.

Cornwell, W. K., Cornelissen, J. H., Amatangelo, K., Dorrepaal, E., Eviner, V. T., Godoy, O., et al. (2008.) Plant species traits are the predominant control on litter decomposition rates within biomes worldwide. Ecological Letters, 11, 1065–1071.

Corre, M. D., Schnabel, R. R., & Stout, W. L. (2002). Spatial and seasonal variation of gross nitrogen transformations and microbial biomass in a northeastern US grassland. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 34, 445–457.

Creswell, H. P., & Hamilton, G.J. (2002). Bulk density and pore space relations. In Soil physical measurement and interpretation for land evaluation. Australian Soil and Land Survey Handbook (pp. 35–58). Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing.

De Groot, R. S. & Van der Meer, P. J. (2010). Quantifying and valuing goods and services provided by plantation forests. Pages 16–42. In: J. Bauhaus, P. J. Van der Meer, M. Kanninen (Eds.), Ecosystem goods and services from plantation forests. London, United Kingdom and Washington D.C.: Earthscan.

Goltenboth, F. & Golthenboth, A. (2000). Agroecological comparison of “rainforestation” farming sites on Leyte, Philippines. Paper presented at the Deutscher Tropentag 2000 in Hohenheim Session: Management and Utilization of Natural Ecosystems, Hohenheim, Germany.

Goltenboth, F. & Hutter, C.-P. (2000). New options for land rehabilitation and landscape ecology in Southeast Asia by “rainforestation farming.” Journal for Nature Conservation, 12, 181–189.

Hall, S. J. & Matson, P. A. (2003). Nutrient status of tropical rain forests influences soil N dynamics after N additions. Ecological Monographs, 73, 107–129.

Hart, S. C., Stark, J. M., Davidson, E. A., Firestone, M. K. (1994). Nitrogen mineralization, immobilization, and nitrification. In: R. Weaver (Ed.), Methods of soil analysis, Part 2: microbiological and biochemical properties (pp. 985–1018). Soil Science Society of America Book Series, vol 5. Soil Science Society of America, Madison, Wisconsin.

Hooper, D. U., Chapin, F. S., Ewel, J. J., Hector, A., Inchausti, P., Lavorel, S., et al. (2005). Effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning: A consensus of current knowledge. Ecological Monographs, 75, 3–35.

Houghton, R. (2012). Carbon emissions and the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in the tropics. Current Opinion in Environment Sustainability, 4: 597–603.

Hunt, N., & Gilkes, B. (1992). Soil structure and drainage. In Farm Monitoring Handbook. University of Western Australia, Land Management Society and National Dry land Salinity Program.

IUSS Working Group WRB. (2015). World Reference Base for Soil Resources 2014, update 2015

International soil classification system for naming soils and creating legends for soil maps.

World Soil Resources Reports No. 106. FAO, Rome.

Jiao, J., Zhang, Z., Bai, W., Jia, Y. & Wand, N. (2012). Assessing the Ecological Success of Restoration by Afforestation on the Chinese Loess Plateau. Restoration Ecology, 20 (2), 240–249

Kolb, M. (2003). Silvicultural analysis of “rainforestation farming” area on Leyte Island, Philippines. Unpubliushed master’s thesis, University of Göttingen, Germany.

Lacan, I., Resh, V. H., & McBride, J. R. (2010). Similar breakdown rates and benthicmacroinvertebrate assemblages on native and Eucalyptus globulus leaf litter in Californian streams. Freshwater Biology, 55, 739–752.

Langenberger, G. (2000). Forest vegetation studies on the foothills of Mt. Pangasugan, Leyte/ The Philippines. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH.

Langenberger, G. (2006). Habitat distribution of dipterocarp species in the Leyte Cordillera: An indicator for species–site suitability in local reforestation programs. Annals of Forest Science, 63, 149–156.

Linn, D. M., & Doran, J. W. (1984). Effect of water-filled pore space on carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide production in tilled and non-tilled soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 48, 1267–1272.

Locatelli, B., Catterall, C. P., Imbach, P., Kumar, C., Lasco, R., Marín-Spiotta, E., et al. (2015) Tropical reforestation and climate change: beyond carbon. Restoration Ecology, 23 (4), 337–343.

Macdonald, C. A., Thomas, N., Robinson, L., Tate, K. R., Ross, D. J., Dando, J., et al. (2009). Physiological, biochemical, and molecular responses of the soil microbial community after afforestation of pastures with Pinus radiata. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 41, 1642–1651.

Mackey, B., Prentice, I. C., Steffen, W., House, J. I., Lindenmayer, D., Keith, H., et al. (2013). Untangling the confusion around land carbon science and climate change mitigation policy. Nature Climate Change, 3, 552–557.

Marohn, C. (2007). Rainforestation farming on Leyte Island, Philippines: Aspects of soil fertility and carbon sequestration potential. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Hohenheim, Germany.

Mckenzie, N. J., Jacquier, D., Isbell, R.F., Brown, K. (2004). Australian soils and landscapes: An illustrated compendium’. Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing.

Milan, P. P. & Margraf, J. (1994). Rainforestation farming, an alternative to conventional concepts. Annals of Tropical Research, 15 (Special issue 4).

Milan, P. P., Ceniza, M. J. C., Asio, V. B., Bulayog, S. B., Napiza, M. D., Bande, M. J. M., et al. (2004). Evaluation of silvcultural management, ecological changes, and market study of products of existing rainforestation demonstration farms and cooperators’s farms (Terminal Report). Baybay, Philippines: Visayas State University, Institute of Tropical Ecology.

Mo, Q., Li, Z., Zhu, W., Zou, B., Li, Y., Yu, S., et al. (2016). Reforestation in southern China: Revisiting soil N mineralization and nitrification after 8 years restoration. Scientific Reports, 6, 19770, doi: 10.1038/srep19770.

Navarrete, I. A. & Tsutsuki, K. (2008). Land-use impact on soil carbon, nitrogen, neutral sugar composition and related chemical properties in a degraded Ultisol in Leyte, Philippines. Soil Science & Plant Nutrition, 54, 321–331.

Navarrete, I. A., Tsutsuki, K., Asio, V. B., Kondo, R. (2009). Characteristics and formation of rain forest soils derived from late Quaternary basaltic rocks in Leyte, Philippines. Environmental Geology, 58, 1257–1268.

Navarrete, I. A., Tsutsuki, K., Navarrete, R. (2010). Humus composition and the structural characteristics of humic substances in soils under different land uses in Leyte, Philippines. Soil Science & Plant Nutrition, 56, 289–296.

Nguyen, H., Vanclay, J., Herbohn, J., & Firn, J. (2016). Drivers of tree growth, mortality and harvest preferences in species-rich plantations for smallholders and communities in the tropics. PLoS ONE, 11(10), e0164957.

Reverchon, F., Bai, S. H., Liu, X., & Blumfield, T. J. (2015). Tree plantation systems influence nitrogen retention and the abundance of nitrogen functional genes in the Solomon Islands. Frontiers in Microbiology, 6, 1439.

Sokal, R. R. & Rohlf, F. J. (1981). Biometry. New York: WH. Freeman and Co.


Full Text: JST_2017 05

Refbacks



Bookmark and Share


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.