On the combined effect of soil fertility and topography on tree growth in subtropical forest ecosystems - a study from SE China

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Thomas Scholten
  • Philipp Goebes
  • Peter Kühn
  • Steffen Seitz
  • Jürgen Bauhus
  • Helge Bruelheide
  • Francois Buscot
  • Alexandra Erfmeier
  • Markus Fischer
  • Jin-Sheng He
  • Keping Ma
  • Pascal A. Niklaus
  • Michael Scherer-Lorenzen
  • Bernhard Schmid
  • Xuezheng Shi
  • Zhengshan Song
  • Goddert von Oheimb
  • Christian Wirth
  • Tesfaye Wubet
  • Karsten Schmidt

The aim of our research was to understand small-scale effects of topography and soil fertility on tree growth in a forest biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF) experiment in subtropical SE China. Methods Geomorphometric terrain analyses were carried out at a spatial resolution of 5 × 5 m. Soil samples of different depth increments and data on tree height were collected from a total of 566 plots (667 m2 each). The soils were analyzed for carbon (soil organic carbon [SOC]), nitrogen, acidity, cation exchange capacity (CEC), exchangeable cations and base saturation as soil fertility attributes. All plots were classified into geomorphological units. Analyses of variance and linear regressions were applied to all terrain, soil fertility and tree growth attributes. Important Findings In general, young and shallow soils and relatively small differences in stable soil properties suggest that soil erosion has truncated the soils to a large extent over the whole area of the experiment. This explains the concurrently increasing CEC and SOC stocks downslope, in hollows and in valleys. However, colluvial, carbonrich sediments are missing widely due to the convexity of the footslopes caused by uplift and removal of eroded sediments by adjacent waterways. The results showed that soil fertility is mainly influenced by topography. Monte-Carlo flow accumulation (MCCA), curvature, slope and aspect significantly affected soil fertility. Furthermore, soil fertility was affected by the different geomorphological positions on the experimental sites with ridge and spur positions showing lower exchangeable base cation contents, especially potassium (K), due to leaching. This geomorphological effect of soil fertility is most pronounced in the topsoil and decreases when considering the subsoil down to 50 cm depth. Few soil fertility attributes affect tree height after 1-2 years of growth, among which C stocks proved to be most important while pHKCl and CEC only played minor roles. Nevertheless, soil acidity and a high proportion of Al on the exchange complex affected tree height even after only 1-2 years growth. Hence, our study showed that forest nutrition is coupled to a recycling of litter nutrients, and does not only depend on subsequent supply of nutrients from the mineral soil. Besides soil fertility, topography affected tree height. We found that especially MCCA as indicator of water availability affected tree growth at small-scale, as well as aspect. Overall, our synthesis on the interrelation between fertility, topography and tree growth in a subtropical forest ecosystem in SE China showed that topographic heterogeneity lead to ecological gradients across geomorphological positions. In this respect, small-scale soil-plant interactions in a young forest can serve as a driver for the future development of vegetation and biodiversity control on soil fertility. In addition, it shows that terrain attributes should be accounted for in ecological research.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Plant Ecology
Volume10
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)111-127
Number of pages17
ISSN1752-9921
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.02.2017

    Research areas

  • Ecosystems Research - soil fertility, topography, soil erosion, matter transport, biodiversity, DSM, carbon stocks, tree, forest, BEF-China, China

DOI

Recently viewed

Researchers

  1. Carsten Hobohm

Publications

  1. Liveness Formats
  2. Is there a compensating wage differential for high crime levels?
  3. Gremlin fusion products with immunoglobulin Fc domains and their use as antiinflammatories or immunomodulators
  4. Jurisdiction and applicable law in cases of damage from space in Europe - The advent of the most suitable choice - Rome II
  5. Welcome to the Glitch and Make Some Noise: Understanding Media through Audio Hacking
  6. Team Ambidexterity and its Prerequisites: An Exploratory Study of an IT Service Management Team
  7. Convergence or mediation? Experts of vulnerability and the vulnerability of experts' discourses on nanotechnologies
  8. Can management compensate for atmospheric nutrient deposition in heathland ecosystems?
  9. Group consent in population based research
  10. A flexible semi-empirical model for estimating ammonia volatilization from field-applied slurry
  11. Soil [N] modulates soil C cycling in CO2-fumigated tree stands
  12. Bats in a Farming Landscape Benefit from Linear Remnants and Unimproved Pastures
  13. Earnings less risk-free interest charge (ERIC) and stock returns: ERIC’s relative and incremental information content in a European sample
  14. Everyone’s Going to be an Architect
  15. Need for cognition, academic self-efficacy and parental education predict the intention to go to college – evidence from a multigroup study
  16. Can not wanting to know be responsible?
  17. ‘Then you just have to perform better’
  18. Understanding market transformation
  19. Computer Support for Environmental Management Accounting
  20. Scale Misfit in Ecosystem Service Governance as a Source of Environmental Conflict
  21. Negative effects of forest gaps on dung removal in a full-factorial experiment
  22. Spatial variation in human disturbances and their effects on forest structure and biodiversity across an Afromontane forest
  23. Systemic Risks from Different Perspectives
  24. myStudy
  25. Global decoupling of functional and phylogenetic diversity in plant communities
  26. Umweltrechtsschutz in China
  27. The Influence of Maximum Strength Performance in Seated Calf Raises on Counter Movement Jump and Squat Jump in Elite Junior Basketball Players
  28. Digital transformation in an incumbent organisation
  29. Three-dimensional microstructural analysis of Mg-Al-Zn alloys by synchrotron-radiation-based microtomography
  30. Ideological Stances in Yoruba Nation Secessionist Discourse in Nigerian Virtual Communities
  31. Sustainable engineering education in research and practice
  32. From the environmental state to the sustainability state? Conceptualization, indicators, and examples
  33. Am Grund des Anderen
  34. Collective intentionality in entrepreneurship-as-practice
  35. Space-focused stereotypes and their potential role in group-based disparities in social work services
  36. Revisited
  37. The classification systems of the EQ-5D, the HUI II and the SF-6D
  38. A review of ecosystem service benefits from wild bees across social contexts
  39. Modern Micropolitics of Antipopulism
  40. The hidden power of language
  41. Variation revisited: A corpus analysis of offers in Irish English and British English
  42. Community-based Entrepreneurship and Rural Development
  43. On the microstructure of the German export boom: Evidence from establishment panel data, 1995-2002