Regional Monitoring of Natural Environment 2002, No 3, 31-43
ECOCHEMICAL INDICATORS OF FOREST SOIL CONDITION DAMAGED BY ACIDIFICATION
Alojzy Kowalkowski
Summary
The integrated natural environment monitoring network, which includes permanent observation sites of forest ecosystems – level II, with a suitable temporary and spatial intensity of measurements, permits to specify adequately both temporary states impulse/reaction and as spatial heterogeneity of the system states. The knowledge of the ongoing pulsation processes in ecosystems can be derived as a rule from temporary trends characterized by sufficiently long data series or by description of ecosystem state sizes. Direct multifaceted observations and measuring procedures permit to specify the system parameter changeability and thereby to approximate the probability of crossing the states of threat threshold values of changes or rapid changes in the ecosystem. The important perspective of risk state estimation emerges in the case of learning about the system states in possibly narrow time intervals, which allows for modelling.
In the study was introduced, on the basis of the syntheses of the results of long-term continuous measurements on surfaces of level II (Reuss, Johnson 1986, Wolff et al. 1999, Svedrup and Warfvinge 1993, 1995, Block et al. 2000, Pälchen, Bart 2001, Becker et al. 2000) as well as the results of the Św. Krzyż Monitoring Station (Kowalkowski et al. 2000, 2001) the possibility of the utilization of data about soils (soil solutions, permanent soil phase) for the specification of the coefficients of their states and potentials of threat due to acidification. The choice of coefficients includes: buffer reactions in soils in dependence of pH of solution, buffer ranges of soil on the basis of predominant processes of dissociation of soil solution, classification of degrees of soil acidification according to Ulrich (Ma%), base saturation, alkality coefficient (ALK μmole 1-1) of soil solutions and rainfall waters with pricing, capacity of acid neutralization (ANC μmole.μmole 1-1), molar relations Ca/Al (mole, mole-1) with pricing of stress risk Al as well as BC/Al mol.mol-1 with critical coefficients of Al stress for different trees and forest plants, as well as the resources of interchangeable cations Mb(kmol(+) hectare-1 dm-1) with pricing of their resources.
