This was initially interpreted as the rate of N accumulation within the system was related to the productivity of the stand. Forest floor mass and N content theoretically increase from some point of inception of disturbance (establishment or fire) until steady state is reached, where detritus inputs are matched by the cumulative losses of the organic matter fractions (Olsen, 1963). Miller (1981) selleck chemicals and Turner (1981) point out that N accumulation in temperate or boreal forest floors may drive stands into N deficiency.
In young or developing stands, the forest floor should be accumulating N whereas forest floor N should be relatively stable in undisturbed mature forests. The question in young stands is whether this N accumulation is measurably at the expense of the soil pool or do we have other inputs? One of the most famous studies of soil change is the Rothamsted long-term plots in the UK. These plots were first sampled in 1882 and 1883, and again in the mid 1960s (Jenkinson, 1970). Two small plots were allowed to revert from agriculture back to “wilderness” (trees selleck screening library – I cannot see that the species were given). In one case (Broadbalk), increments in the soil averaged 55 kg ha−1 yr−1 and in the other (Geescroft) 15 kg ha−1 yr−1. The latter rate of accumulation is not so large as to be inexplicable given the probable rates of atmospheric
input, but the former is inexplicably large. As noted by Binkley et al. (2000), these plots are small with large potential edge effects which may have facilitated higher than normal inputs of dry deposition from neighboring fertilized and manured fields. Johnson (1995) reported on changes in forest floor and mineral soil N content in soils under three
vegetation-elevation types (spruce-fir, high hardwood, and low hardwood were they mature?) Phospholipase D1 over an 8-year period following clearcut harvesting in Hubbard Brook, New Hampshire, USA. They found forest floor changes of −30, −29 and −28 kg N ha−1 yr−1 in the forest floors of the spruce-fir, high hardwood, and low hardwood types, respectively, and soil changes of +95, −48, and −88 kg N ha−1 yr−1, respectively. None of these changes were statistically significant. Vegetation increments were not reported. Morrison and Foster (2001) reported on the changes in mass and nutrient contents of forest floors in the Turkey Lakes Watershed, Ontario, Canada. They found that total organic matter and nutrient contents remained unchanged with the exception of N, which increased by 17.1 kmol ha−1 over the 15-year sampling period, or 16 kg ha−1 yr−1 on average (Table 2). They attribute this increase to uptake and redistribution from the mineral soil, which apparently was unique to N in this case. Kiser et al. (2009) report on soil N changes in an oak-pine watershed system at Camp Branch, Tennessee in the top 10 cm of soil.