Abstract
The present study aimed to detect any changes in concentrations of nutrients and evaluate the impact on the quality of two hemiboreal streams that collect a discharge from two fertilized Scots pine stands. In 2017, nitrogen-containing mineral fertilizer was spread in pine stands on mineral soil located near the first stream. In 2018, potassium containing wood ash was spread in pine stands on organic soil near the second stream. From 2017 to 2020, surveys of physico-chemical parameters, diatoms, macrophytes, and macroinvertebrates were performed to determine the possible effects of fertilization on the ecological quality of the streams. A control site upstream of the fertilized forest stand and a treatment site downstream of the fertilized forest stand was monitored at each stream. Water quality indices, chemical parameters of surface water, and indicator species analysis showed no short-term impact of forest soil improvement with wood ash and ammonium nitrate. We found no clear patterns before and after the fertilization events in both streams, although we did observe inter- and intra-annual differences in aquatic biota and stream ecological quality mainly caused by local environmental factors.
Highlights
Forest management practices include drainage, sanitary cuts, pre-commercial thinning, and proper regeneration, including implementing forest soil preparation methods and selecting planting material
This study aimed to compare the impact of forest soil improvement with wood ash and ammonium nitrate on ecological quality between two hemiboreal streams using water chemistry, diatoms, macrophytes, and macroinvertebrates as indicators
We detected a statistically significant increase in PTOT concentration
Summary
Forest management practices include drainage, sanitary cuts, pre-commercial thinning, and proper regeneration, including implementing forest soil preparation methods and selecting planting material. Forest soil fertilization—depending on the fertilizer type and site conditions—is recognized as an effective measure to enhance tree growth [1,2]. Forest soil fertilization has been practiced in Sweden since the 1950s, with 190,000 ha per year fertilized with nitrogen-containing fertilizer in the mid-1970s to improve the growth conditions of forests. This practice declined significantly in the 1990s due to an increased ecological focus in Swedish forestry [3]. In the 1960s, fertilization experiments of Norway spruce were conducted in Denmark, but since 1980, experiments mainly focused on counteracting decline of forest. Forest soil fertilization is no longer practiced in Denmark [9]. It is estimated that annual fertilization of 5000–10,000 ha forest in Norway would contribute to the CO2 sequestration in 10 years of 0.14–0.27 million tonnes/year [10]
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