Relationships between net nitrogen mineralization, properties of the forest floor and mineral soil, and wood production in Pinus radiata plantations

Abstract

We examined the relationship between net nitrogen (N) mineralization (subsequently termed N mineralization) in the forest floor and mineral soil (0–0.15 m) of 20 Pinus radiata D. Don plantations ranging in age from 23 to 59 years, how mineralization was influenced by soil properties, and its relationship to wood production. Forest floor properties had a narrower relative range than the same set of mineral soil properties. Total N in the litter layer was 5.0–9.5 g·kg–1 compared with 0.23–2.53 g·kg–1 in mineral soil. Laboratory rates of net N mineralization ranged between 1.1 and 9.7 mg·kg–1·day–1 in forest floor and between 0.02 and 0.53 mg·kg–1·day–1 in mineral soil. The range in litter lignin (35.3–48.0%) was especially narrow, despite the large range in stand productivity. Nitrogen mineralized in the forest floor was not correlated with any of the measured forest floor or mineral soil properties. Nitrogen mineralized per unit mineral soil N (ksn) was negatively correlated with the mineral soil N to organic phosphorus ratio (N/Po) (r2 = 0.82). In mineral soil a relationship combining N/Po and total N concentration explained 90% of the variation in N mineralized. Nitrogen mineralized in the forest floor was correlated with that mineralized in the mineral soil when expressed per unit C or N (r2 = 0.54 or 0.57, respectively). Thus, the quality of organic matter in the forest floor partly reflected the quality of organic matter in the mineral soil with respect to N mineralization. Mineralization in mineral soil dominated the net N available to the stand. For sandy soils, wood production (m3·ha–1·year–1) was correlated with N mineralized in the forest floor + mineral soil (r2 = 0.71). In P. radiata stands growing in southern Australia, rates of wood production per unit N mineralized and per unit rainfall appear to be substantially higher than those of a wide range of natural and planted stands in North America.