Decomposition of organic matter is a critical process in the ecosystem, which involves many essential biotic and physical parts. Decomposition is therefore an important process both above and below ground. The rate of decomposition is dependent of many environmental factors for example: pH, moisture and supply of oxygen. The decomposition can therefore be affected by large scaled environmental influences, such as acidification and climatic changes. The root litter in the forest is in different ways affected by acidification, liming and manuering. Because of the important role the root system has to the whole forest ecosystem, it can be of importance to gain knowledge about how roots are affected by external environmental influences. In the forest ecosystem fertilise the soil has become a common practice in forest management to optimise tree production. Experiments with nitrogen fertilisation have shown that the volume growths of the tree and litter supply have increased after fertilisation. There are also reports about the negative effects nitrogen fertilisation has on decomposition, which results in a decreased decomposition of organic matter. The aim of this study is to investigate how the decomposition of organic matter, in this case roots, is affected by a large addition of ammonium sulphate. The study concentrates on to statistically evaluate important aspects on how addition of ammonium sulphate affects the decomposition of organic matter below ground in different soil layers and root diameters, and investigate the possibilities that addition of ammonium sulphate could lead to a decreasing potential of carbon mineralisation. The study was conducted is in Skogaby, which is located in southwest Sweden in the community of Halland. Samplings of roots were made in the experimental area from the humus and mineral layer. Roots used for this study varied from less than 2mm up to 2-5mm. Decomposition of root litters were made with litterbags, which were placed in the soil in the humus and mineral layer in the original place of were the roots were collected. The results from this study showed that there appear significant differences in some of the cases between the control and ammonium sulphate treatments. The conclusion that can be drawn by this study is that the addition of ammonium sulphate, under certain conditions depending on root diameter and soil layer, comes to affect the decomposition of root litter. The addition of ammonium sulphate seems to have a positive effect on the decomposition in the initial phase, for then come to decrease in the later phases and be similar to the control areas. It can also be determined that decomposition does not seem to vary within treatments with regards to root diameter and soil layer. Regarding the question about how carbon mineralisation is affected by addition of ammonium sulphate it is probable that the addition would come to increase the mineralisation in the initial phases of the decomposition, compared with the control plots.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-1422 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Gustafsson, Therése |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för tematisk utbildning och forskning, Institutionen för tematisk utbildning och forskning |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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