The presence of mosses in black spruce forests is known to have an important impact on the availability and abundance of nutrients in this ecosystem. Mosses contribute to long-term accumulation of organic matter and storage of nutrients as well as to short-term nutrient release. In the boreal forest of northwestern Quebec, the effect of mosses on nutrient cycling was examined within the framework of a chronosequence ranging from 25 to 300 years of age. Laboratory and buried bag incubations, total nutrient digests, respirometric and root abundance measurements as well as moisture and temperature measurements were done to characterize the nutritional status of the organic matter profiles. In general, no change in moss accumulation, or nutrient storage or availability across the chronosequence could be detected. There were, however, differences between feather mosses and Sphagnum mosses, the latter having significantly lower levels of nutrients than the former in terms of mineralizable nitrogen and total carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, magnesium and potassium content. The nutritional profile of moss cores showed different horizons, reflecting differences in organic matter quality down the organic layer. More specifically, nitrogen availability on a concentration basis as well as root abundance decreased with depth. Forest floor temperature seemed to confine the most biologically active horizon, referred to as the active layer, to a shallow depth, however neither temperature nor moisture seemed to explain the nutritional differences between feather mosses and Sphagnum mosses. These results may lead to practical consequences in that they show a clear distinction between the effects of feather mosses and Sphagnum mosses in nutrient cycling, suggesting that moss cover, might be useful as an indicator of site nutritional status. The results also show that accumulation of nutrients in organic surface horizons, as has been observed elsewhere, does not appear to occur in blac
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.33012 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Klenk, Nicole. |
| Contributors | Fyles, J. W. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Natural Resource Sciences.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001846597, proquestno: MQ75326, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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