Carbon and nitrogen mineralization in subarctic agricultural and forest soils

摘要

C and N mineralization potentials were determined, in a 12-week laboratory incubation study, on soil samples obtained from recently cleared land which had been cropped to barley for 4 years (field soils) and from nearby undisturbed taiga (forest soils). Treatments for the cropped soils were conventional and no-tillage with and without crop residues removed. An average of about 3 of the total C was evolved as CO2from the field soils compared with>10 and 4 for the upper (Oie) and lower (Oa) forest-floor horizons, respectively. Significantly more C was mineralized from the Ap of the no-till treatment with residue left on the surface than from the other field Ap horizons. Both forest-floor horizons showed rather long lag periods for net mineralization compared with the field soils, but at the end of the incubation, more mineral N was recovered from the forest Oie despite a rather wide C:N ratio, than from the field soils. After 12 weeks about 115, 200 and 20 μg mineral N/g soil were recovered from the field Ap, the forest Oie and the forest Oa horizons, respectively. Very little C or N was mineralized from the B horizon of the forest or the field soils. Nitrification was rapid and virtually complete for the field soils but was negligible for both forest-floor O horizons