Forest soil biotic communities show few responses to wood ash applications at multiple sites across Canada.

ABSTRACT: There is interest in utilizing wood ash as an amendment in forestry operations as a mechanism to return nutrients to soils that are removed during harvesting, with the added benefit of diverting this bioenergy waste material from landfill sites. Existing studies have not arrived at a consensus on what the effects of wood ash amendments are on soil biota. We collected forest soil samples from studies in managed forests across Canada that were amended with wood ash to evaluate the effects on arthropod, bacterial and fungal communities using metabarcoding of F230, 16S, 18S and ITS2 sequences as well as enzyme analyses to assess its effects on soil biotic function. Ash amendment did not result in consistent effects across sites, and those effects that were detected were small. Overall, this st

SUBMITTER: Smenderovac E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8907164 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature