Thinning intensity influences on soil microbial and inorganic nitrogen in Pinus densiflora forests, central Korea

With growing considerations for sustainable forest management, examining thinning effects on forest ecosystems becomes one of the principal research focuses. Soil microbial biomass and inorganic nitrogen (N) have, particularly, received increasing attentions, as they are the relevant indices for N availability in forests. Here, we investigated the influences of thinning on soil microbial biomass N (MBN) and inorganic N (NH4+ and NO3-) in two Pinus densiflora forests, central Korea. The thinning from below with different intensities based on stand density (site 1: control, 20%, and 30% thinning; site 2: control, 39%, and 74% thinning) was applied in 2008, and MBN, NH4+, and NO3- at 0-10 cm depth were measured seven years after thinning. The MBN, NH4+, and NO3- concentrations (mg kg-1) of the site 1 were 69.8, 9.8, and 6.3 in the control, 94.6, 9.3, and 4.0 in the 20% thinning plot, and 97.2, 8.4, and 5.2 in the 30% thinning plot, respectively. On the other hand, those of the site 2 were 34.5, 5.4, and 6.3 in the control, 37.3, 4.7, and 7.8 in the 39% thinning plot, and 44.4, 4.4, and 9.2 in the 74% thinning plot, respectively. The MBN of the thinning plots tended to be higher compared to those of the controls, although the analysis of variance reported the significant difference only for the MBN in the site 1 (P<0.05). This might be attributed to the incorporation of organic matter from the introduced thinning residues and from the increased understory vegetation following thinning. However, no significant difference was found for the NH4+ and NO3- (P>0.05). The results of the present study show that the application of thinning could differently affect MBN and inorganic N; accordingly, this difference might alter N availability of the study sites. This study was supported by Forest Practice Research Center, Korea Forest Research Institute.