We use some essential cookies to make this website work.
We’d like to set additional cookies to understand how you use forestresearch.gov.uk, remember your settings and improve our services.
We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services.
Preparing to search
Antia Villada, PhD studentship, University of Reading (2009-2012)
Northern temperate forests have been identified as major contributors to the terrestrial C sink. Among the different land uses, afforestation and reforestation have been recommended as practices to mitigate climate change by promoting C storage in both soils and biomass but the main factors affecting long-term C stabilization in soils remain uncertain.
This research investigated:
Results showed that tree species (beech- Fagus sylvatica L., oak- Quercus robur L., Douglas-fir- Pseudotsuga menziesii Mirb., Norway spruce- Picea abies L.Karst., and Sitka spruce- Picea sitchensis Bong) and forest type (conifers and broadleaves) had clearly and consistently (p<0.05) affected labile C pools. Not only greater labile C pools (HWEC and FLF) but also a higher peroxidase activity was found in mineral topsoil horizons beneath conifers when compared to broadleaf species at both podzol and luvisol sites. However, when testing the effect of tree species and forest types on more stabilized C pools (non-hydrolysable C and silt- and clayassociated C), no consistent results were found among sites, thus suggesting the existence of important interactions between tree species and soil forming processes.
Therefore, the interaction between soil type x tree species factors appears to be critical in determining the quality and potential stability of SOC in temperate forest soils.
Soil coring at a Douglas Fir research plot.
This PhD project was undertaken by Antia Villada, with supervisors Prof Liz Shaw and Prof Anne Verhoef of University of Reading and Dr Elena Vanguelova of Forest Research. This project was part-funded by Forest Research.
Cookies are files saved on your phone, tablet or computer when you visit a website.
We use cookies to store information about how you use the dwi.gov.uk website, such as the pages you visit.
Find out more about cookies on forestresearch.gov.uk
We use 3 types of cookie. You can choose which cookies you're happy for us to use.
These essential cookies do things like remember your progress through a form. They always need to be on.
We use Google Analytics to measure how you use the website so we can improve it based on user needs. Google Analytics sets cookies that store anonymised information about: how you got to the site the pages you visit on forestresearch.gov.uk and how long you spend on each page what you click on while you're visiting the site
Some forestresearch.gov.uk pages may contain content from other sites, like YouTube or Flickr, which may set their own cookies. These sites are sometimes called ‘third party’ services. This tells us how many people are seeing the content and whether it’s useful.