Effects of harvesting intensity, vegetation control and fertilization on 5–20 year post-harvest N availability in boreal jack pine and black spruce forest soils in northern Ontario, Canada

Abstract

The impact of harvesting intensity, vegetation control and fertilization on soil N availability 5–20 years post-harvest was determined at 18 jack pine and black spruce forests in northern Ontario, Canada. The study sites are affiliated with the North American long-term soil productivity (LTSP) study. Boreal forest growth is commonly N limited and young stands approaching crown closure acquire most of their N from the soil. The study sites represented a range of soil types and were harvested with three levels of organic matter removal (stem-only harvest, full-tree harvest and full-tree harvest with organic horizon removal by blading). Three study sites had multiple applications of glyphosate to control competing vegetation and one site included a trial with two applications of N, P, K fertilizer to the full-tree harvest treatment. We used short-term anaerobic laboratory incubations and in-situ closed top tube growing season incubations to determine mineralizable N and net N mineralization, respectively. Profile (organic plus mineral horizons) mineralizable N pools were higher in operational clearcut (stem-only and full-tree harvesting) treatments compared to the uncut reference forest 10–14 years post harvest. Full-tree harvesting with blading significantly reduced profile mineralizable N pools at this time compared to operational harvesting, while the same treatment at one upland site also reduced net N mineralization pools. Profile mineralizable N pools and microbial biomass C and N were lower in full-tree compared to stem-only harvesting treatments, suggesting that increased slash retention with stem-only harvesting was playing a role in enhanced soil N availability at a time when plantations were approaching a period of greater N demand. Fertilization and vegetation control treatments had few effects on N indices, although net N mineralization pools for the stem-only and full-tree harvest that also had the repeated herbicide treatment were consistently, but not significantly, lower than non-herbicided treatments. Soil N indices were useful predictors of dominant height growth for jack pine to a greater degree than for black spruce, and soil N concentrations were as effective at predicting height growth as more resource intensive measurements. Our results point to the importance of continued monitoring of soil and stand conditions at these LTSP sites as treatment effects on soil N cycling and site productivity will likely continue to evolve. At this stage of stand development, full-tree harvesting plus organic horizon removal, followed by operational harvesting has led to lower soil N availability than operational tree-length harvesting, and stands with understory vegetation control are now showing indications of reduced N availability.