Supplemental material available online. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 79:1470–1481. doi:10.2136/sssaj2015.03.0101 Received 13 Mar. 2015 Accepted 13 July 2015. *Corresponding author ([email protected]). © Soil Science Society of America, 5585 Guilford Rd., Madison WI 53711 USA. All Rights reserved. Influence of Forest Disturbance on Stable Nitrogen Isotope Ratios in Soil and Vegetation Profiles Forest, ...

Mineralizable nitrogen (min-N) often correlates well with plant-available nitrogen (N) in soils, and might serve as a useful indicator of whether soils are detrimentally affected by timber harvesting practices. We examined how min-N responded to soil compaction and site organic matter removal after 1 and 5 years on three sites in central British Columbia. Mineral soil min-N was found to change ...

Research in low biodiversity extreme environments allows separation of the climatic, soil and biological interactions that determine soil biodiversity and community structure. Studies focused on the response of low diversity communities in soils of the Antarctic Dry Valleys and the Chihuahuan Desert of the southwestern USA, to manipulations of soil resources and climate, offer the best opportun...

Seed banks are critically important for disturbance specialist plants because seeds of these species germinate only in disturbed soil. Disturbance and seed depth affect the survival and germination probability of seeds in the seed bank, which in turn affect population dynamics. We develop a density-dependent stochastic integral projection model to evaluate the effect of stochastic soil disturba...

Forest management often results in changes in soil microbial communities. To understand how forest management can change microbial communities, we studied soil microbial abundance and community structure in a natural Chamaecyparis (NCP) forest, a disturbed Chamaecyparis (DCP) forest, a secondary (regenerated) Chamaecyparis (SCP) forest and a secondary (reforested) Cryptomeria (SCD) forest. We a...

1. Disturbance is assumed to be a major driver of plant community composition, but whether similar processes operate on associated soil microbial communities is less known. Based on the assumed trade-off between disturbance tolerance and competiveness, we hypothesize that a severe disturbance applied within a semi-natural grassland would shift the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal community to...

Some species of centipedes and millipedes inhabit upper soil layers exclusively and are not recorded by pitfall trapping. Because of their sensitivity to soil conditions, they can be sampled quantitatively for evaluation of soil conditions. Soil samples are heavy to transport and their processing is time consuming, and such sampling leads to disturbance of the soil surface which land-owners do ...

Extensive tree mortality from insect epidemics has raised concern over possible effects on soil biogeochemical processes. Yet despite the importance of microbes in nutrient cycling, how soil bacterial communities respond to insect-induced tree mortality is largely unknown. We examined soil bacterial community structure (via 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing) and community assembly processes (via nul...

BACKGROUND Invasion-biology is largely based on non-experimental observation of larger organisms. Here, we apply an experimental approach to the subject. By using microbial-based microcosm-experiments, invasion-biology can be placed on firmer experimental, and hence, less anecdotal ground. A better understanding of the mechanisms that govern invasion-success of bacteria in soil communities will...

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,135 The Forest Floor Defined and Measured .....................................................................................