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A Comparison of Soil Organic Matter Content in 1932, 1984, and 2005/6 in Forests of the Adirondack Mountains, New York
Author(s) -
Bedison James E,
Johnson Arthur H.,
Willig Sally Andersen
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj2009.0132n
Subject(s) - hardwood , organic matter , soil water , environmental science , softwood , soil organic matter , soil horizon , forestry , soil science , geography , ecology , botany , biology
We quantified the organic matter content of organic and mineral horizons in 1932, 1984, and in 2005/6 at 54 sites in a mixed hardwood‐softwood stand and in northern hardwood (NH), pine‐dominated (PW), and spruce‐fir (SF) forests of the Adirondack Mountains, NY to determine if there were measurable changes in soil organic matter (SOM) pools over the ∼75‐yr interval. Further, the different land‐use histories of these sites provided an opportunity to evaluate the influence of land‐use history on forest SOM since the early 1930s. Overall, there were no significant differences in combined organic + mineral horizon (whole‐profile) SOM amounts over the interval. There was, however, a significant increase in whole‐profile SOM content between 1932 and 2005/6 at 16 sites that had a history of agriculture or fire which amounted to an increase in C content of approximately 0.5 Mg C ha −1 yr −1 This indicated that at least some Adirondack forest soils were accumulating C during the 20th century.