Impact of Agriculture and Roadways on Fragmented Forests in Michigan
Abstract
Human activity can alter the function and characteristics of natural land. In the Midwest there are many human- impacted forest fragments that are surrounded and thus influenced by nearby agriculture land and roadways. Vehicular emissions and waste debris related to urbanization introduce many compounds into the environment which can eventually be deposited on the forest and affect it. Agricultural land use can also affect natural landscapes as high amounts of fertilizers are applied to fields, which can then be redistributed after the fact. In highly populated areas, these processes can then alter or disrupt natural cycles in native forest soils that receive the deposition of human produced compounds. This study aims to characterize forest soil health from two woodlots in East Lansing, MI that are directly adjacent to agricultural land or a major freeway. In each woodlot, soil samples were collected from seven locations along three transects. All samples have been processed for soil acidification, macronutrient (K+, PO43-, Ca2+, Mg2+ and Na+) bioavailability as well as quantification of carbon and nitrogen mineralization rates by native microbes in the forest patches. We expect salt concentrations to be highest near road edges and to decrease farther into the forest site. We also predict that samples obtained from forest edges near agricultural fields will have higher soil acidification as a consequence of macronutrient leaching due to the high use of ammonium containing fertilizers in crops.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.B21F2385A
- Keywords:
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- 0402 Agricultural systems;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 0428 Carbon cycling;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 0470 Nutrients and nutrient cycling;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 0486 Soils/pedology;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES