Acidifying processes and acid-base reactions in forest soils reciprocally transplanted along a European transect with increasing pollution

Abstract

Forest ecosystems are currently beingexposed to changes in chemical inputs and it issuggested that physical climate is also changing. Anovel approach has been used to study the effects ofionic inputs and climatic conditions on forest soilsby reciprocally exchanging lysimeters containingundisturbed soil columns beween four forest sites inEurope. The soil columns contained no living roots andsimulated a clear cut situation. The soils chosenrepresented different stages of acidification and weretaken from sites along a transect of increasingexposure to acidic and nitrogen pollution. The purposeof the study was to quantify the reactions of soilswhen transferred to different environments. Elementbalances were used as an aggregated indicator todescribe the reaction of the soil. The input of protonsin local throughfall increased along the transect from0.01 kmol ha-1 y-1H+ at the unpolluted site up to 1.10 kmolha-1 y-1 at the most pollutedsite. Our results show that soil acidification always resultedfrom a combination of acid deposition and biologicaltransformations of nitrogen through nitrification ofimported ammonium, mineralized N, or stored N. Thebalances indicate that between 54% and 91%of the soil acidification resulted from nitrificationprocesses which were driven by a complex reaction whenclimatic and pollution conditions were changedsimultaneously. The combined changes in atmosphicinputs and climatic conditions, as expected withglobal change, may have serious consequences for soilacidfication and long term organic matter turnover.