Regional Monitoring of Natural Environment 2004, No 5, 199-217
TRANSFORMATION OF PRECIPITATION IN OF CHOSEN GEOECOSYSTEM IN THE ŚWIĘTOKRZYSKIE MOUNTAINS
Marek Jóźwiak, Rafał Kozłowski
Summary
The research on activities of chosen geoecosystems was carried out in two research stations, which are sub-units included into the Integrated Monitoring Station of the Świętokrzyska Academy. The presented material contain results of the research on precipitation water from the hydrological years 2000-2003. From the year 2001, in the Święty Krzyż Mount, and from 2002, in Malik, the research was extended also to analysis of soil solutions. Samples of the bulk deposition were collected from above tree crowns. The through fall was obtained from the Malik station in a pine forest stand and in the Święty Krzyż Mount in a fir-tree forest stand. The stem flow research included measurements of flow on pines (Malik) and firs (The Święty Krzyż Mount). Soil solutions were collected at 5 depths – 15, 30, 60, 90 and 120 cm. The precipitation is a subject of considerable transformations within the perpendicular configuration: atmospherical air – tree crowns and trunks – soil, depending on the man’s activity in the environment. Most often, it is acidification. The qualitative changes of precipitation are influenced by a tree type (conifers, deciduous) and a tree species (morphology of the trunk bark, crown configuration). For the conifers, with a more morphologically diverse trunk bark, higher mineralisation stem flow is characteristic. The variability indicators ANCaq, ALK and Ma% show increasing participation of acidic components in the stem flow. The increased acidification of deposits at the level of the forest floor is an effect of the presence of sulfate and nitrate ions, which are washed away form the plant surface. The aggressiveness of this fall causes outwashing of K+, Mn2+ and PO43- ions, mostly from plant assimilative organs. The transformed falls cause soil acidification which is greatest at tree trunks up to the depth of 10 cm. The soil and water conditions and long-lasting significant acidic emissions from the air, especially in the central part of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains, caused the shift of the soil acid reaction to the range of the aluminium and iron bufferness at all depths of soil profiles. In the condition of acidic soils saturated with ions of H+, Al3+, Fe3+, the base cations which are washed out from trees are not absorbed in the sorptive complex of soils, but they are washed away from the range of the tree root systems.