INVESTIGATION METHOD OF THE RAIN WATER INFLUENCE ON FOREST SOIL PROPERTIES

Regional Monitoring of Natural Environment 2002, No 3, 45-51

 

INVESTIGATION METHOD OF THE RAIN WATER INFLUENCE

ON FOREST SOIL PROPERTIES

 

Alojzy Kowalkowski, Marek Jóźwiak, Rafał Kozłowski

 

Summary

 

Stemfall and throughfall waters obtain new chemical properties in the forest (Table 1 Figs. 3, 4) and exert influence on the pH values of soils and other easily changing properties. New spatial arrangements of properties are developed in the forest stands, particularly around the trunks of older trees. They create concentric “gradients” around trees which change with distance from tree trunks on a definite forest acreage (Figs. 2, 6). It is known, e.g. that the pH value in surface levels of mineral soils under tree crowns is greater and the greatest in hatches between tree crowns. The knowledge of the micromosaic arrangement of the property of forest soils is made possible by the method of investigation of the paths of substance flow with rainfall waters through forest stand to soil on the basis of 5-15 parallel repetitions in the arrangement of 4 measuring lines according to cardinal points, with the intersection point – the trunk of a measuring tree (Fig. 5). Data obtained in this way at the tree trunk in the decimetric and metric distances are a sufficient basis for the cartographic representation of measurement results and ecological interpretation. Biogroups of forest-forming trees of the known crown structure (Fig. 1), morphological form of bark (Photos 1-4) and root system (Figs. 7-10) are qualified for measurement. Results of these investigations can be used directly in forest economy, and particularly in the interpretation of development trends of soils, forest assemblages and forest stands under the influence of acid falls.