Characteristics of Soil Nutrients Within Canopy Gaps of Various Sizes in Secondary Forests in Eastern Mountainous Regions of Liaoning Province, China
Effects of gap sizes on soil nutrients in the early stage of gap formation were studied by observing soil nutrients within the gaps with three different sizes ( large, medium and small ) in seeondary forests in eastern Liaoning Mountainous Region, China. Results showed that, compared with the forest stands ( the control ), there were no significant differences in soil organic carbon, total nitrogen and total phosphorus among the three gaps of different sizes. Ammonium nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, available P and microbial biomass P were significantly higher within gaps than those in the control. The eoneentrations of nitrate nitrogen, available P and microbial biomass P were the highest in the small gap, followed by the medium gap and the large gap in order. Moreover, microbial biomass P had significant positive correlation with available P,ammonium nitrogen and soil water content( P＜0.05 ). These results indicate that the fluctuations of soil available nutrients in the seeondary forest gaps are closely related to gap sizes, and the soil available nutrients, especially available N and P,are better in the small gap than those in the medium and large gaps.
Secondary forestsForest gapsSoil available nutrients
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
维普
