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Forestry 1986 59(1):39-46; doi:10.1093/forestry/59.1.39
© 1986 by Institute of Chartered Foresters
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The Effect of Starch Amendment on Nitrogen Mineralisation from the Forest Floor Beneath a Range of Conifers

RALPH HARMER and IAN ALEXANDER

Department of Plant Science, University of Aberdeen St Machar Drive, Aberdeen AB9 2UD

Samples of LFH collected beneath the canopies of 16 coniferous species growing at the same site were incubated in the laboratory with or without a starch amendment. Exchangeable nitrogen present ranged from 10.5–256 and 11.4–512 µgg–1 organic matter for freshly collected and unamended incubations respectively. When starch was added material from 11 species showed significantly greater accumulation of mineral nitrogen with increases ranging from ca 20–1370 per cent. Nitrification was negligible except in Thuja plicata where nitrate constituted 68 or 83 per cent of the mineral nitrogen present after incubation without or with starch respectively. Starch addition increased rates of net nitrogen mineralisation in LFH material from Picea sitchensis over a range of growth rates. Rates were greatest in material from the most productive stands whether or not starch was added. The results are discussed with reference to the factors controlling litter decomposition and nitrogen mineralisation in the forest floor.


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