The Effects of Silvicultural Treatment on Subsoil C and N Budgets in California Ponderosa Pine Plantations.

Throughout the history of soil C and N research in forest ecosystems topsoil has been the major focus of investigation. Although surface C and N pools have been shown to be somewhat responsive to treatment and landuse change little investigation has been directed towards digging deeper to quantify pools and cycling relationships of forest subsoils. This research quantifies C and N pools of two contrasting forest soils in Northern California utilizing the Garden of Eden long term silvicultural experiment. Soil cores collected with a Geoprobe to a depth of 2m and analyzed for soil C and N to develop mass balances for two treatments (herbicide and herbicide with fertilization) and an untreated control.