0000000000620015
AUTHOR
B. L. Williams
Simulating soil freeze/thaw cycles typical of winter alpine conditions: Implications for N and P availability
Abstract Seasonally snow-covered alpine soils may be subjected to freeze/thaw cycles, particularly during years having little snow and during the late winter and early spring periods. Freeze/thaw cycles can stimulate soil mineralization and could therefore be one factor regulating nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) availability and cycling. In this study laboratory incubation experiments using four soils having contrasting properties have been used to characterize the change in N and P forms (microbial and soluble inorganic/organic) that occur after simulated freeze/thaw cycles. Soil samples were collected from locations representing extreme examples of either direct human management (grazed m…
Labile nitrogen, carbon, and phosphorus pools and nitrogen mineralization and immobilization rates at low temperatures in seasonally snow-covered soils
Surface mineral horizons from four ecosystems sampled in the northwestern Italian Alps were incubated at −3 and +3°C to simulate subnivial and early thaw period temperatures for a seasonally snow-covered area. The soil profiles at these sites represent extreme examples of management, grazed meadow (site M) and extensive grazing beneath larch (site L) or naturally disturbed by avalanche and colonized by alder (site A) and the expected forest climax vegetation beneath fir (site F). Changes in labile pools of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) were active at all sites at both temperatures during 14 days of laboratory incubation. Ammonium was the dominant inorganic form of total dissolved N (TDN),…