Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Lupine influence on soil carbon, nitrogen and microbial activity in developing ecosystems at Mount St. Helens

  • Original Papers
  • Published:
Oecologia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Summary

Lupine influence on soil C, N, and microbial activity was estimated by comparing root-zone soil (LR) to nonroot-zone soil (NR) collected at Mount St. Helens. Samples were collected from 5 sites forming a gradient of C and N levels as a reflection of different locations and varying volcanic disturbance by the 1980 eruption. In volcanic substrates undergoing primary ecosystem development, C and N levels were low, as would be expected, but higher in LR soil than NR soil. At the least disturbed sites, N was only slightly greater in LR soil whereas significantly less C was observed in LR soil than in surrounding NR soil. Inorganic-N concentrations were small at all sites but comprised a significant proportion of the total amount of soil N in volcanic substrates. In general, LR zone soil contained significantly more NH sup+inf4 −N. The addition of glucose increased respiration in soils from all sites with the greatest relative response in volcanic soil from the low end of the C and N gradient. Active soil microbial biomass-C and cumulative respiration were correlated with C and N and were significantly greater in LR soil than in NR soil for all sites. These results are consistent with some expected trends in ecosystem development and demonstrate the significance of resource dynamics and lupines in determining patterns of ecosystem response to disturbance at Mount St. Helens. They also suggest that processes leading to soil heterogeneity can be related to either development or to degradation depending on the context of the specific ecosystem or resource under consideration.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson TH, Domsch KH (1985) Maintenance carbon requirements of actively-metabolizing microbial populations under in situ conditions. Soil Biol Biochem 17:197–203

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson TH, Domsch KH (1989) Ratios of microbial biomass carbon to total organic carbon in arable soils. Soil Biol Biochem 21:471–479

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson TH, Domsch KH (1990) Application of eco-physiological quotients (qCO2 and qD) on microbial biomasses from soils of different histories. Soil Biol Biochem 22:251–255

    Google Scholar 

  • Barth RC, Klemmedson JO (1978) Shrub induced spatial patterns of dry matter, nitrogen and organic carbon. Soil Sci Soc Am J 42:804–809

    Google Scholar 

  • Bazzaz FA, Sipe TW (1987) Physiological ecology, disturbance, and ecosystem recovery. In: Schulze ED, Zwolfer H (eds) Potentials and limitations of ecosystem analysis. Ecological Studies 61. Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York Tokyo, pp 203–227

    Google Scholar 

  • Braatne JH (1989) Comparative physiology and population ecology of Lupinus lepidus and Lupinus latifolius colonizing early successional habitats on Mount St. Helens. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Washington, Seattle WA, USA

  • Bremner JM, Mulvaney CS (1982) Nitrogen-total In Page AL, (ed) Methods of soil analysis, Part 2. Chemical and microbiological properties. Agronomy Monograph no. 9, Am Soc Agronomy. 2nd Edition

  • Broadbent FE (1947). Nitrogen release and carbon loss from soil organic matter during decomposition of added plant residues. Soil Sci Soc Am Proc 12:246–249

    Google Scholar 

  • Charley JL, West NE (1975) Plant induced soil chemical patterns in some shrub dominated semi-desert ecosystems in Utah. J Ecol 63:945–964

    Google Scholar 

  • del Moral R (1983) Initial recovery of subalpine vegetation on Mount St. Helens Washington. Am Midl Nat 109:72–80

    Google Scholar 

  • del Moral R, Wood DM (1988) Dynamics of herbaceous vegetation recovery on Mount St. Helens, Washington, USA after volcanic eruption. Vegetatio 74:11–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Diaz-Ravina M, Carballas T, Acea MJ (1988) Microbial biomass and metabolic activity in four acid soils. Soil Biol Biochem 20:817–823

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickson BA, Crocker RL (1953) A chronosequence of soils and vegetation near Mt. Shasta, California. II The development of the forest floors and the carbon and nitrogen profiles of the soils. J Soil Sci 4:142–156

    Google Scholar 

  • Doescher PS, Miller RF, Winward AH (1984) Soil Chemical patterns under eastern Oregon plant communities dominated by big sagebrush. Soil Sci Soc Am J 48:659–663

    Google Scholar 

  • Engle M (1983) Carbon, nitrogen and microbial colonization of volcanic debris on Mount St. Helens. MS Thesis, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA

  • Flanagan PW (1986) Substrate quality influences on microbial activity and mineral availability in taiga forest floors. In Van Cleve K, Chapin III FS, Flanagan PW, Viereck LA, Dyrness CT (eds) Forest ecosystems in the Alaskan taiga. Ecological Studies 57. Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York Tokyo, pp. 138–151

    Google Scholar 

  • Franz EH (1986) A cynamic model of the volcanic landscape: rationale and relationships to the theory of disturbance. In: Keller SAC, (ed) Mount St. Helens: five Years later, Eastern Washington University Press, Cheney, WA, pp 143–146

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill JL (1978) Design and analysis of experiments in the animal and medical sciences. The Iowa State University Press, vol 1. p 341

  • Griggs RF (1933) The colonization of Katmai ash, a new and “inorganic” soil. Am J Botany 20:92–113

    Google Scholar 

  • Halpern CB, Harmon ME (1983) Early plant succession on the Muddy River Mudflow, Mount St. Helens, Washington. Am Midl Nat 110:97–106

    Google Scholar 

  • Halvorson JJ (1989) Carbon and nitrogen contributions to Mount St. Helens volcanic sites by lupines. PhD Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Hart SC (1988) Carbon and nitrogen accretion and dynamics in volcanic ash deposits from different subarctic habitats. Biol Fert Soils 7:79–87

    Google Scholar 

  • Helal HM, Sauerbeck D (1989) Carbon turnover in the rhizosphere. Z Pflanzenernaehr Bodenk 152:211–216

    Google Scholar 

  • Hitchcock CL, Cronquist A (1973) Flora of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press, Seattle, Washington

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt HW, Ingham ER, Colman DC, Elliott ET, Reid CPP (1988) Nitrogen limitation of production and decomposition in prairie, mountain meadow, and pine forest. Ecology 69:1009–1016

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurlbert SH (1984) Psuedoreplication and the design of ecological field experiments. Ecol Monogr 54:187–211

    Google Scholar 

  • Insam H, Domsch KH (1988) Relationship between soil organic carbon and microbial biomass on chronosequences of reclamation sites. Microb Ecol 15:177–188

    Google Scholar 

  • Insam H, Haselwandter K (1989) Metabolic quotient of the soil microflora in relation to plant succession. Oecologia 79:174–178

    Google Scholar 

  • Kotliar NB, Weins JA (1990) Multiple scales of patchiness and patch structure: a hierarchical framework for the study of heterogeneity. Oikos 59:253–260

    Google Scholar 

  • MacMahon JA, Parmenter RR, Johnson KA, Chrisafulli CM (1989) Small mammal recolonization on the Mount St. Helens volcano: 1980–1987. Am Midl Nat 122:365–387

    Google Scholar 

  • Martens R (1990) Contribution of rhizodeposits to the maintenance and growth of soil microbial biomass. Soil Biol Biochem. 22:141–147

    Google Scholar 

  • Merckx R, Dijkstra A, den Hartog A, van Veen JA (1987) Production of root derived material and associated microbial growth in soil at different nutrient levels. Biol Fertil Soils 5:126–132

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris WF, Wood DM (1989) The role of lupine in succession on Mount St. Helens: Facilitation or inhibition? Ecology 70:697–703

    Google Scholar 

  • Myrold DD, Matson PA, Peterson DL (1989) Relationships between soil microbial properties and aboverground stand characteristics of conifer forests in Oregon. Biogeochemistry 8:265–281

    Google Scholar 

  • Nuhn WW (1987) Soil genesis on the 1980 pyroclastic flows of Mount Saint Helens. MS Thesis, University of Washington Seattle WA

  • Odum EP (1969) The strategy of ecosystem development. Science 164:262–270

    Google Scholar 

  • Odum EP (1985) Trends expected in stressed ecosystems. BioScience 35:419–422

    Google Scholar 

  • Odum EP, Finn JT, Franz EH (1979) Perturbation theory and the subsidy-stress gradient. BioScience 29:349–352

    Google Scholar 

  • Papavizas GC, Davey CB (1961) Extent and nature of the rhizosphere of Lupinus. Plant Soil 14:215–236

    Google Scholar 

  • Parnas H (1976) A theoretical explanation of the priming effect based on microbial growth with two limiting substrates. Soil Biol Biochem 8:139–144

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterson DW (1986) Mount St. Helens and the science of volcanology: a five year perspective. In: Keller SAC, (ed.) Mount St. Helens: five years later. Eastern Washington University Press, Cheney Washington, USA pp 3–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Schlesinger WH, Reynolds JF, Cunningham GL, Huenneke LF, Jarrell WM, Virginia RA, Whitford WG (1990) Biological feedbacks in global desertification. Science 247:1043–1048

    Google Scholar 

  • Shipley JW (1919) The nitrogen content of volcanic ash in Katmai eruption of 1912. Ohio J Sci 19:213–223

    Google Scholar 

  • Skujins J, Kublek B (1982) Soil biological properties of a montane forest sere: corroboration of Odum's postulates. Soil Biol Biochem 14:505–513

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith JL, McNeal BL, Cheng HH, Campbell GS (1986) Calculation of microbial maintenance rates and net nitrogen mineralization in soil at steady state. Soil Sci Soc Am J 50:332–338

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith JL, Paul EA (1990) The significance of soil microbial biomass estimations in soil. In Stotzky G, Bollag J (eds.) Soil biochemistry, vol. 6. Marcel Dekker, New York NY USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Snyder JD, Trofymow JA (1984) A rapid accurate wet oxidation diffusion procedure for determining organic and inorganic carbon from plant and soil samples. Comm Soil Sci Pl An 15:587–597

    Google Scholar 

  • Steel RGD, Torrie JH (1980) Principles and procedure of statistics. A biometrical approach. 2nd edition. McGraw-Hill, New York, NY USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor BR, Parkinson D, Parsons WFJ (1989) Nitrogen and lignin content as predictors of litter decay rates: a microcosm test. Ecology 70:97–104

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Veen JA, Merckx R, Van de Geijn SC (1989) Plant — and soil —related controls of the flow of carbon from roots through the microbial biomass. In Clarholm M, Bergstrom L (eds) Ecology of arable land. Kluwer-Academic Publishers pp. 43–52

  • Vitousek PM, Walker LR (1989) Biological invasion by Myrica faya in Hawai'i: Plant demography, nitrogen fixation, ecosystem effects. Ecol Monogr 59:247–265

    Google Scholar 

  • Wardle DA, Parkinson D (1990) Comparison of physiological techniques for estimating the response of soil microbial biomass to soil moisture. Soil Biol Biochem 22:817–823

    Google Scholar 

  • West AW, Sparling GP, Grant WD (1986) Correlation between four methods to estimate total microbial biomass in stored, air-dried and glucose-amended soils. Soil Biol Biochem 18:569–576

    Google Scholar 

  • Wood DM, del Moral R (1987) Mechanisms of early primary succession in subalpine habitats on Mount St. Helens. Ecology 68:780–790

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Author notes

  1. J. J. Halvorson

    Present address: USDA-ARS, Washington State University, 215 Johnson Hall, Pullman, WA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Research Center and Department of Botany, Washington State University, 99164, Pullman, WA, USA

    J. J. Halvorson

  2. USDA-ARS, Washington State University, 99164, Pullman, WA, USA

    J. L. Smith

  3. Environmental Research Center and Program in Environmental Science and Regional Planning, Washington State University, 99164, Pullman, WA, USA

    E. H. Franz

Authors
  1. J. J. Halvorson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. J. L. Smith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. E. H. Franz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Halvorson, J.J., Smith, J.L. & Franz, E.H. Lupine influence on soil carbon, nitrogen and microbial activity in developing ecosystems at Mount St. Helens. Oecologia 87, 162–170 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00325253

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00325253

Key words

Search

Navigation