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The Influence of Afforestation on Upland Soils: The Use of ‘Bomb 14C’ Enrichment as a Quantitative Tracer for Changes in Organic Status

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

D D Harkness  and
A F Harrison
D D Harkness
Affiliation:
NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory, East Kilbride, Scotland
A F Harrison
Affiliation:
NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory, East Kilbride, Scotland
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Abstract

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A series of soil samples were collected in November 1984 from five stands of Sitka spruce planted at recorded times between 1951 and 1968. Within a comprehensive program of ecologic and biogeochemical analyses, natural 14C measurements on selected organic components of the 0 to 5cm soil horizons serve to quantify progressive changes induced in the organic carbon inventory and relative to that of the original grassland. Points of particular interest are: 1) an enhanced input of fresh organic matter in the years immediately following planting; this, in parallel with a net decrease in the total carbon content of the topsoil; 2) this freshly introduced carbon predominates in the soil profile even after 30 years of afforestation; 3) during the 15- to 30-year growth period, the soil carbon content remains constant but progressive changes occur in its biogeochemical composition and rate of turnover.

Type
II. Carbon Cycle in the Environment
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 31 , Issue 3: June 20-25, 1988 Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia , 1989 , pp. 637 - 643
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

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