at Google ScholarTitle data
Matzner, Egbert ; Davis, M.:
Chemical soil conditions in pristine Nothofagus forests of New Zealand as compared to German forests.
In: Plant and Soil.
Vol. 186
(1996)
.
- pp. 285-291.
ISSN 1573-5036
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02415524
Abstract in another language
In many German forest soils low base saturation of CEC in deeper soil layers was reported and acidic deposition isseen as the major cause of these findings. To test this hypothesis we sampled 5 New Zealand forest soils from pristinebeech (Nothofagusfusca, N. menziesii, N. solandri) sites under climatic and geological conditions comparable tohigher elevations in Germany. The soils developed from granite and greywacke. Soil samples were analyzed forpH and the exchangeable cations were extracted with 1 M NHaCI. The base saturation of all soil profiles was verylow, even in deeper layers and was thus similar to the patterns found in many German forest soils. The pH wasgenerally higher in the New Zealand soils as compared to Germany. The reason for the depletion of base cations indeeper soil layers of New Zealand forest soils is most likely the leaching of base cations with HCO~ resulting fromthe dissociation of carbonic acid in connection with high amounts of seepage. Thus, under high rainfall conditions,the low base saturation found in deeper layers of forest soils cannot exclusively be attributed to the effects of acidicdepositions and land use.