Ecological Responses of an Oligotrophic Floodplain Forest to Harvesting.

Aerial and ground-based harvest systems were compared in terms of effects on gaseous and hydrologic transfers of N and P. The South Alabama study sites were narrow floodplains of low order, blackwater streams and were dominated by P-deficient histolsols and a mixed deciduous, evergreen forest. There was no statistically significant harvesting effect on either denitrification or surface and groundwater chemistry. Denitrification exhibited a strong seasonal trend and considerable within-site variation with annual rates ranging from 7 to 20 kg/ha per yr. Nitrate and phosphate concentrations in waters were quite low and did not vary significantly between the harvested zone and unharvested forests immediately upstream and downstream from the harvest. An unexpected result of the harvests was a statistically significant lowering of groundwater tables, an apparent evaporation response to elevated temperatures in the dark-colored organic soils.

The effects of removing cloudwater and lowering ambient O3 on red spruce grown at high elevations in the southern Appalachians.

This study was conducted to determine whether acidic cloudwater and ozone (O3) influence the growth of red spruce (Picea rubens L.) seedlings growing at a high elevation site in the southern Appalachian Mountains. A field exclusion chamber study was established at Whitetop Mountain, VA (elevation 1689 m) which included the following treatments: (1) clouds and O3 excluded (COE); (2) exposure to ambient O3 with clouds excluded (CE); (3) exposure to clouds and O3 (CC); and (4) ambient air plots (AA) that served as a control to evaluate possible chamber effects. After 2 years, seedlings exposed to ambient levels of O3 and cloudwater (AA and CC) did not differ in biomass accumulation, diameter growth, or epicuticular wax amounts from seedlings grown in chambers where pollution levels were reduced (CE and COE). Treatments receiving cloudwater (AA and CC) had statistically lower current-year needle concentrations of Ca and Mg, indicating that the cloudwater exposure dynamics occurring at this site elicited reductions in needle Ca and Mg. Ozone had negligible impact on all of the seedling parameters measured.

Response of tree seedlings to aluminum.

This review focuses on the mechanisms underlying aluminum (Al) toxicity in trees. The major topics discussed include the uptake and localization of Al, effects of Al on growth and composition, factors determining the response to Al, proposed mechanisms of Al resistance, and the occurrence of Al phytotoxicity under field conditions.

Effects of aluminum on growth, development, and nutrient composition of honeylocust (Gleditsia triacanthos L.) seedlings.

Hydroponic experiments were conducted to determine the effects of aluminum (Al) on root development, shoot morphology and the nutrient composition of honeylocust seedlings (Gleditsia triacanthos L.). Seedlings were grown at pH 4 in a nutrient solution containing 0, 50, 150, 600 or 1500 microM Al. Within seven days, there were significant differences in root growth and root nutrient composition between control seedlings and seedlings grown in the presence of 150 or 600 microM Al. By day 14, significant reductions in leaf production and plant height were observed in seedlings treated with 1500 microM Al. At the lowest Al concentration, 50 microM, leaf size and expansion rates were significantly lower than in the controls. By the third week of the experiment, Ca and Mg concentrations in young leaves of the Al-treated seedlings were significantly lower than in leaves of control plants. Analysis of old leaf tissue, however, revealed no consistent pattern of nutrient concentration with Al treatment.