Journal article

Publication year: 2022

Pages: 39-72

Journal: Biogeochemistry

Volume number: 158

Issue number: 1

ISSN: 0168-2563

eISSN: 1573-515X

Open access status: Hybrid

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-021-00884-7

Publisher: Springer

Abstract: 
Sustainable forest management requires understanding of ecosystem phosphorus (P) cycling. Lang et al. (2017) [Biogeochetnistry, https://doi.org/ 10.1007/s10533-017-0375-0] introduced the concept of P-acquiring vs. P-recycling nutrition strategies for European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forests on silicate parent material, and demonstrated a change from P-acquiring to P-recycling nutrition from P-rich to P-poor sites. The present study extends this silicate rock-based assessment to forest sites with soils formed from carbonate bedrock. For all sites, it presents a large set of general soil and bedrock chemistry data. It thoroughly describes the soil P status and generates a comprehensive concept on forest ecosystem P nutrition covering the majority of Central European forest soils. For this purpose, an Ecosystem P Nutrition Index (ENIp) was developed, which enabled the comparison of forest P nutrition strategies at the carbonate sites in our study among each other and also with those of the silicate sites investigated by Lang et al. (2017). The P status of forest soils on carbonate substrates was characterized by low soil P stocks and a large fraction of organic Ca-bound P (probably largely Ca phytate) during early stages of pedogenesis. Soil P stocks, particularly those in the mineral soil and of inorganic P forms, including Al- and Fe-bound P, became more abundant with progressing pedogenesis and accumulation of carbonate rock dissolution residue. Phosphorus-rich impure, silicate-enriched carbonate bedrock promoted the accumulation of dissolution residue and supported larger soil P stocks, mainly bound to Fe and Al minerals. In carbonate-derived soils, only low P amounts were bioavailable during early stages of pedogenesis, and, similar to P-poor silicate sites, P nutrition of beech forests depended on tight (re)cycling of P bound in forest floor soil organic matter (SOM). In contrast to P-poor silicate sites, where the ecosystem P nutrition strategy is direct biotic recycling of SOM-bound organic P, recycling during early stages of pedogenesis on carbonate substrates also involves the dissolution of stable Ca-P org precipitates formed from phosphate released during SOM decomposition. In contrast to silicate sites, progressing pedogenesis and accumulation of P-enriched carbonate bedrock dissolution residue at the carbonate sites promote again P-acquiring mechanisms for ecosystem P nutrition.

Harvard Citation style: Prietzel, J., Krueger, J., Kaiser, K., Amelung, W., Bauke, S., Dippold, M., et al. (2022) Soil phosphorus status and P nutrition strategies of European beech forests on carbonate compared to silicate parent material, Biogeochemistry, 158(1), pp. 39-72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-021-00884-7

APA Citation style: Prietzel, J., Krueger, J., Kaiser, K., Amelung, W., Bauke, S., Dippold, M., Kandeler, E., Klysubun, W., Lewandowski, H., Loeppmann, S., Luster, J., Marhan, S., Puhlmann, H., Schmitt, M., Siegenthaler, M., Siemens, J., Spielvogel, S., Willbold, S., Wolff, J., ...Lang, F. (2022). Soil phosphorus status and P nutrition strategies of European beech forests on carbonate compared to silicate parent material. Biogeochemistry. 158(1), 39-72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-021-00884-7