Soil Microbial Functional Diversity under the Single-Season Influence of Traditional Forest Management in a Sessile Oak Forest of Central Europe

Aleš Kučera,Jan Kadavý,Michal Kneifl,Robert Knott,Michal Friedl,Jana Rosíková,Ladislav Holík,Daniel Volařík,Tomáš Vichta,Barbora Uherková

doi:10.3390/f12091187

Abstract

This one-year study focuses on the responses of a soil environment to the implementation of traditional forest management practices in oak–hornbeam stands with the following treatments: cut (C), cut + litter raking (CR), cut + grazing (CG), cut + litter raking + grazing (CRG) and control (Ctrl). The cut was conducted in 2018 through extremely heavy thinning. In autumn of 2017 and 2018, we sampled the soils, focusing on microbial functional diversity (FD) assessments using BIOLOG EcoplateTM. After one season, the FD was the highest in the Ctrl stand and the lowest in the CRG stand. Furthermore, we detected significant seasonal differences in soil reaction, nitrate nitrogen content, phosphatase activity and microbial biomass among the treatments. In particular, the Ctrl stand was defined via FD indices and biochemical and biological soil properties that contrasted mainly with those of the CRG stand defined by the content of mineral nitrogen forms. The soil properties did not differ substantially in the remaining treatments. Of the 31 carbon sources defining FD, 6 were treatment-specific (putrescine, L-arginine, L-serine, L-threonine, D-cellobiose and glycogen), while the remaining carbon sources mainly displayed either uniform high or low activity across the treatments.

Highlights

Forests are characterized by the presence of long-lived tree species
Significant increases were observed in the soil response associated with the cut + litter raking + grazing (CRG) and Ctrl plots, an increase in the humus fraction content was observed in connection with the CRG plots, and an increase in N-NH4 + within the C between 2017 and
This study focused on the responses of soils to extremely heavy thinning (88% of stock volume) and subsequent litter raking and grazing

Summary

Introduction

Forests are characterized by the presence of long-lived tree species. In connection with these tree species, forest soils typically display arrangements of forest floor horizons (litter). Traditional forest management measures, including coppicing, grazing and litter raking, represent a variety of anthropogenic disturbances [3] that, according to some studies, cause long-term impact on the soil level [4,5,6]. These methods are controversially discussed and frequently abandoned due to the resulting soil degradation and gradual reductions in the production capacities of habitats. These methods inhibit the succession of forest ecosystems, and in a way, are beneficial in terms of the presence of rare taxa [7]

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