Influence of Environmental Pollution on Nitrogen Metabolism and Other Metabolic Activities in Forest Soils : Proceedings of the Joint Symposium "Environmental Threats to Forest and Other Natural Ecosystems" held at the University of Oulu, Finland, November, 1-4, 1988 : Ecological impact of acidification

1989

69-77

4 Abb., 17 Lit

Unselbständiges Werk

200060886

The estimation of the effects of environmental pollution on soils depends highly on the availability of a set of parameters of appropriate diagnostic value. Frequently parameters were determined which are in direct connection with the polluting agents, i.e. acidity, contents of lead and sulfur etc. We would like to introduce several biological and biochemical parameters which too, may be of great diagnostic value. A principal methodic problem is the comparability of sample and control, i.e., the availability of soil samples with and without pollution, but identical in every other aspect. In previous experiments it turned out to be not admissible to compare soil samples from different /highly or less polluted/ areas, not even if the soil types resemble very much. There are always small differences in the local climates, vegetation and other factors, which make the samples incomparable. We decided to work in beech forests and to investigate soil samples drawn either from a zone far from the stems or from a zone immediately at a stem base which is much more polluted owing to the rainwater which flows down at the surface of the stems and which contains a great part of pollutants collected by the canopy, according to the observations of KAZDA and GLATZEL /1984/. The investigated habitats are situated in the beech forests in the west and northwest of Vienna /"Wienerwald"/. Their characteristics were given in detail by GLATZEL et al. /1986/.