Nitrogen leaching from surface soil in a temperate mixed forest subject to intensive deer grazing

• Published in: Landscape and ecological engineering Vol. 12; no. 2; pp. 223 - 230
• Main Authors: Furusawa, Hitomi, Hino, Teruaki, Takahashi, Hiroshi, Kaneko, Shinji
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo Springer Japan 01.07.2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: aboveground biomass; Ammonium; ammonium nitrogen; Biomass; Biomedical and Life Sciences; carbon; carbon nitrogen ratio; Cervus nippon; Civil Engineering; culms; Deer; Environmental Management; Forests; Grazing; ion exchange; Japan; Land use; Landscape Ecology; Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning; Leaching; leaves; Life Sciences; Litter; Mineralization; Mixed forests; Nature Conservation; nitrate nitrogen; Nitrification; Nitrogen; Original Paper; Plant Ecology; Sasa; Sasa nipponica; Soil surfaces; Temperate forests; temperate soils; Understory; INW, Japan; Japan; C:N ratio; Soil nitrogen dynamics; Understory plants; Temminck
• ISSN: 1860-1871; 1860-188X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11355-016-0296-4

We aimed to determine the grazing impact on soil nitrogen (N) mineralization and N leaching in a temperate mixed forest on Mt. Ohdaigahara, central Japan, where Sika deer ( Cervus nippon Temminck; hereafter deer) grazing has decreased biomass of Sasa nipponica Makino et Shibata (hereafter sasa) that dominates the forest understory. Soil N mineralization and N leaching of the top 0.3-m layer were measured in situ from 2006 to 2007 by an ion-exchange resin core method inside and outside a deer exclosure. Deer grazing decreased the carbon to nitrogen (C:N) ratio of sasa litter because of the declining dead culm C:N ratio and the increasing ratio of leaves with a lower C:N ratio than culms in the aboveground biomass. Grazing increased N mineralization and nitrification rates as well as annual N (ammonium-N and nitrate-N) and nitrate-N leaching. In contrast, deer grazing did not increase the total soil C and N content. The positive effect of grazing on the N mineralization rate may have resulted from a qualitative change in sasa litter due to grazing. The higher annual N leaching resulting from deer grazing may have been related to the facilitated N mineralization rate and decreased N uptake in plants, e.g., sasa with less aboveground biomass due to grazing.