Soil greenhouse gas and nutrient dynamics in fertilized western Canadian plantation forests

Abstract

We explored the impacts of fertilization on soil greenhouse gas fluxes and underlying soil nutrient transformations using short-term (up to 7 months) simulated operational fertilization with urea-nitrogen or nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and micronutrients in lodgepole pine ( Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud. var. latifolia Engelm.), western hemlock ( Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sarge.), and Douglas-fir ( Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) forests in British Columbia. Urea appeared to be rapidly mineralized to ammonium, and nitrification (relative to controls) was only observed at the lodgepole pine site and represented only 0.5% of added nitrogen. All sites were small net sinks for atmospheric methane, and fertilization effects, both stimulatory and inhibitory, were short-lived. Across all sites and treatments, soils were as likely to consume as emit nitrous oxide, and among treatment replicates, rates were never significantly different from 0, with the exception of one efflux rate of 1.5 µg·m–2·h–1on the warmest day in the study. We conclude from this pilot study that in acidic, unpolluted (with regard to nitrogen deposition) upland conifer forest soils in western Canada fertilized once or infrequently with urea, ammonium, or a combination of nutrients, the dynamics of soil greenhouse-gas fluxes are generally not disturbed over the short-term, with soils remaining small sinks for atmospheric methane and neutral with regard to flux of nitrous oxide.