Decomposition of small diameter woody debris of red fir determined by nuclear magnetic resonance

• Published in: Communications in soil science and plant analysis Vol. 29; no. 17/18; pp. 2691 - 2704
• Main Authors: McColl, J.G. (University of California, Berkeley, CA.), Powers, R.F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia, PA Taylor & Francis Group 01.01.1998; Taylor & Francis
• Subjects: ABIES MAGNIFICA; ABONOS NITROGENADOS; ACLAREO; Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; ANALYTICAL METHODS; BARK; Biological and medical sciences; BOIS; BOIS MORT; CALIFORNIA; CALIFORNIE; CHEMICAL COMPOSITION; Chemical, physicochemical, biochemical and biological properties; CHIMIE DU SOL; CLIMATIC FACTORS; COMPOSICION QUIMICA; COMPOSITION CHIMIQUE; CORTEZA; DEADWOOD; DEGRADACION; DEGRADATION; ECLAIRCISSAGE; ECORCE; ENGRAIS AZOTE; ESPECTROSCOPIA RMN; EXPERIMENTACION EN CAMPO; EXPERIMENTAL PLOTS; EXPERIMENTATION AU CHAMP; FACTEUR CLIMATIQUE; FACTORES CLIMATICOS; FIELD EXPERIMENTATION; FOREST LITTER; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; HOJARASCA FORESTAL; LITIERE FORESTIERE; MADERA; MADERA MUERTA; MINERALISATION; MINERALIZACION; MINERALIZATION; NITROGEN FERTILIZERS; NMR SPECTROSCOPY; Organic matter; Physics, chemistry, biochemistry and biology of agricultural and forest soils; QUIMICA DEL SUELO; SOIL CHEMISTRY; Soil science; SPECTROSCOPIE RMN; TECHNIQUE ANALYTIQUE; TECNICAS ANALITICAS; THINNING; UNTHINNED VERSUS THINNED PLOTS; WOOD; California; United States; North America; America; Nitrogen fertilization; Organic matter; Aliphatic compound; Decomposition; Concentration; Dose activity relation; Mountain; Total nitrogen; Softwood forest tree; Gymnospermae; Coniferales; Spermatophyta; Aromatic compound; Measurement method; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Debris; Inceptisols
• ISSN: 0010-3624; 1532-2416
• DOI: 10.1080/00103629809370144

Red fir (Abies magnifica A. Murr.) woody debris decomposing for 17 years in untreated (Control) and nitrogen-fertilized plus widely thinned (NT2) plots was examined by 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Total carbon (C) and total N concentrations were also determined. Combined data of wood and bark showed correlations between carboxylic, aromatic, O-alkyl and aliphatic C fractions, and C fractions with C/N, but phenolic and methoxyl correlations were non-significant. Wood mass losses averaged 38% for both Controls and NT2. Bark mass losses were 61% for Controls and 66% for NT2, but these were not significantly different at p0.05; bark sloughing added considerable variance. Wood in Controls decreased O-alkyl (66 to 50%) and aromatic (16 to 13%), increased carboxyl (1.5 to 6.5%) and aliphatic (2.0 to 15.5%), and decreased Cm/Lm, i.e., carbohydrate/lignin monomers (2.78 to 1.82). In NT2 plots, open crowns allowed greater drying of the forest floor during warm, dry summers. The C/N averages were slightly lower in NT2 than in Controls for wood (167 versus 188), and the same for bark (45 and 43), but differences were not significant at p0.05. Decompositional pathways in different environments, by brown-rot and white-rot fungi, are discussed