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An evaluation of forest decline based on field observations focussed on Norway spruce, Picea abies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

E.-D. Schulze  and
P. H. Freer-Smith
E.-D. Schulze
Affiliation:
Lehrstuhl Pflanzenökologie, Universität Bayreuth, Box 101251, 858 Bayreuth, Germany
P. H. Freer-Smith
Affiliation:
Forest Research Station, Alice Holt Lodge, Wrecclesham, Farnham, Surrey GU10 4LH, U.K.
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Synopsis

Forest decline in Europe is centred around areas where air pollution is heaviest. Although statistical relations are still debatable at the stand level, they are a basis for the discussion of mechanisms by which air pollutants affect forest health. The aetiologies of different syndromes of decline are discussed. Exposure to large concentrations of gaseous pollutants appears to have short-term rather than long-lasting effects, whereas pathogens seem to be of only secondary importance. The deposition of sulphur and nitrogen (nitrate and ammonium) pollutants has significantly modified soil chemistry and plant nutrition. In acidic low-pH soils spruce roots, instead of utilising nitrate, preferentially take up ammonium which interferes with the uptake of other cations, notably magnesium. The nitrate remaining in soil solution, as a result of the preferential uptake of ammonium, is leached together with sulphate to groundwater, accelerating soil acidification and further decreasing the calcium and/or magnesium to aluminium ratios in soil solution. Soil solution chemistry affects root development, and thus water and nutrient uptake. Canopy uptake of nitrogen, especially of ammonium, which is additional to root uptake, may occur and appears to stimulate growth inciting a nitrogen to cation imbalance with the consequential production of decline symptoms.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Section B: Biological Sciences , Volume 97: Acidic Deposition: Its Nature and Impacts , 1990 , pp. 155 - 168
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1990

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