Abstract
Forest vitality fertilization experiments were established in 1992 on a heavy metal deposition gradient in order to estimate the impact of the fertilizers on the disturbed forest ecosystem. The treatments consisted of control (C), lime (L), ground apatite (TF) and nitrogen (NL at 0.5 and 4 km; N at 8 km) applications at distances of 0.5, 4 and 8 km from a Cu-Ni smelting plant. Along the 8 km long transect towards the plant the total Cu concentration of the humus layer of the Calluna site type Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) stands increased from 294 ± 40 mg kg-1 dry matter in the less polluted area to 7634 ± 880 mg kg-1 d.m. in the heavily polluted area.
The microbial community was characterized by phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) and community-level carbon source utilization (BIOLOG; GN microliter plates) patterns. The data were analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA). The pollution induced a gradual change in the PLFA pattern of the humus samples, indicating a change in microbial community structure. In the heavily polluted area the fertilization treatments had no effect on the microbial community structure since no differences between the treatment and control plots were observed. In the medium and less polluted study area a different PLFA composition was observed in the NL and L plots, indicating a treatment effect. However, the community structures in the limed plots of the less and medium polluted areas were not similar.
With the BIOLOG approach the PCA clustered the 36 study plots into three groups. One group consisted of all the polluted plots with no treatment-related separation. The second group consisted of plots from the medium and less polluted area including the C, TF and N treatments. The third group consisted of the plots from the medium and less polluted study area with the L or NL treatment. When using the BIOLOG approach no distinction between the medium and less polluted areas was achieved. Thus a 3.8 fold increase in the pollution level between the less and medium polluted area induced a change in the microbial community structure (PLFA pattern) without influencing the functional diversity (BIOLOG pattern). Liming treatments induced similar changes in the functional diversity of the microbial communities of the less and medium polluted areas even though they had different initial PLFA patterns.
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© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Fritze, H., Pennanen, T., Vanhala, P. (1997). Impact of Fertilizers on the Humus Layer Microbial Community of Scots Pine Stands Growing Along a Gradient of Heavy Metal Pollution. In: Insam, H., Rangger, A. (eds) Microbial Communities. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60694-6_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60694-6_7
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