Soil water-retention characteristics and fertility of afforested arable land
Wall A. (2005). Soil water-retention characteristics and fertility of afforested arable land. https://doi.org/10.14214/df.14
Abstract
From the standpoint of evaluating site quality for growing forest trees, the soil chemical and physical properties of cultivated arable land are poorly known. Therefore, soil matrix, water-retention characteristics and fertility of afforested arable land were studied. Subsequently, the implications of these soil characteristics for productivity of tree stands were assessed. The results indicated that the soil properties of afforested arable land differ markedly from those of forest soils. The changes in the composition of the soil matrix due to former agricultural land use manifested as increased organic matter content in mineral soils and, in contrast, as increased mineral matter content in peat soils. In general, afforested arable lands were characterized by soils having high contents of nutrients, high content of organic matter, high pH, and low air-filled porosity at field capacity, which resulted from the predominance of small pores. In all investigated soils, the air-filled porosity was less than 20% in the topmost soil layer and decreased significantly with increasing soil depth. The results suggested that soils of afforested arable land commonly have critically low aeration for tree growth. It appears that due to management history, afforested arable lands have a higher level of soil fertility compared to their inherent soil fertility. The high soil fertility of former arable land was, however, also attributed to the inherent properties of fine-grained soils. Consequently, based on of densities of Ca, P, silt and pH in the 0-10 cm soil depth, derived discriminant functions classified all sites from afforested arable land into forest site types of high productivity. Among these soils, those with high clay and silt content were the most fertile. The changes in the physical and chemical properties of soils due to former agricultural land use seem to be significant and long lasting to such a degree that afforested arable land is very unlikely to regain its inherent soil fertility even over an extended period of time.
Keywords
afforestation;
agricultural land;
nutrient availability;
soil aeration;
soil properties
Published 16 December 2005
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Available at https://doi.org/10.14214/df.14 | Download PDF
Original articles
Wall, A. & Heiskanen, J. 1998. Physical properties of afforested former agricultural peat soils in western Finland. Suo 49: 1-12.
http://www.suoseura.fi/suo/index.html
Wall, A. & Heiskanen, J. 2003. Water-retention characteristics and related physical properties of soil on afforested agricultural land in Finland. Forest Ecology and Management 186: 21-32.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-1127(03)00239-1
Wall, A. & Hytönen, J. 1996. Painomaan vaikutus metsitetyn turvepellon ravinnemääriin. Summary: Effect of mineral soil admixture on the nutrient amounts of afforested peat fields. Suo 47: 73-83.
http://www.suoseura.fi/suo/index.html
Hytönen, J. & Wall, A. 1997. Metsitettyjen turvepeltojen ja viereisten suometsien ravinnemäärät. Summary: Nutrient amounts of afforested peat fields and neighbouring peatland forests.
Suo 48: 33-42.
http://www.suoseura.fi/suo/index.html
Wall, A. & Hytönen, J. 2005. Soil fertility of afforested arable land compared with continuously forested sites. Plant and Soil 275: 247-260.
https://doi.org/10.1007/S11104-005-1869-4
Wall, A. & Westman, C.J. 2006. Site classification of afforested arable land based on soil properties for forest production. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 36: 1451-1460.