Soil Differences Between Elk Meadow Grassland and Forest Alex Kelley Vegetation Ecology Summer 2015 Cu Mountain Research Station The reason I chose to do soil is because I really never think about soil, everyone always sees plants and animals, but no one ever thinks of the soil that helps all of these things survive. Alex Kelley 7-23-15 Soil differences between elk meadow grassland and forest. Key words: Soil, herbaceous, color, stratificaton, organic, mineral.

Introduction Major Question: Are the 2 soils similar in structure, or have they changed due to the surrounding plants? Relevancy: This study can help get us clues as to how to Re-Forest places that have been decimated by Deforestation We may be able to see whether or not deforestation can completely change the landscape of an area. We may also be able to see if the soil has enough nutrients for trees to repopulate the area.

Why is deforestation bad Deforestation practices causes negative changes in soil property including erosion and instability. Lack of trees leave soil more susceptible to erosion Erosion can lead to mudslides Such practices by local people (meaning deforestation) can affect various ecological features of the forests including negative changes in soil properties and increase in soil erodibility mostly due to lowering of soil aggregate stability (Ozalp et al 2015)

Methods Area of study: Elk Meadow -Stratification of the -Uncut and cut forest I drew a rough diagram of the area and plotted the best place to dig, from then I randomly chose 3 random numbers between 0-20 meters to get the baseline of my study, and from there I again chose 3 random numbers, this time between 0-10 meters to see how far to go out from the baseline to my soil plot.

Soil Sample Methods -3 samples of forest and meadow -Dug 10 cm deep -Measured depth of litter and mineral content -Textured the Soil -Color classified the soil I completed 3 samples of soil plots on both the forest and the meadow I dug 10 cm deep to get passed most of the roots to get to better samples of the soil, I also dug to get a good picture of the organic layer as opposed to the mineral layer. When I say tested for organic and mineral I mean I just looked to see about how much of the 10 cm was organic vs mineral.

Herbaceous Sample Methods Measured herbaceous cover -10 m line intercept transect -3 samples each in forest and meadow Used my soil sample as a midpoint For the acquiring of my herbacious plants, I used a 10 meter transect tape and performed a point intercept using my soil plot as the midpoint of the transect tape Add herbacious cover picture

Limitations to my Methods Small sample size Results are relevant to Elk Meadow Small sample size in that I was only able to get data from one area, so all findings that I have will be applicable to elk meadow only, any further areas that you have in question will only be based on assumptions off of elk meadow.

Results: Species Differences between Forest and Meadow I had 10 unique species to the meadow, and only 5 unique species in the forest, with 3 shared species across the 2 areas.

Results: Soil differences

Results -As I expected there was a lot more herbaceous plants in the meadow as opposed to the forest. -Soils were a little interesting, meadow had lots of rocks, and forest had maybe a few pebbles.

-Meadow > Diversity and Richness -Forest < Diversity and Richness -Forest > Evenness At face value it appears that the meadow has a lot more plants and abundance. According to the Shannon Wiener index, the meadow has a higher amount of species diversity. But according to the eveness ofthe species, it shows that the forest has a better amount of eveness than the meadow. And the % similarity is at nearly 19%, which means they have roughly 19 species in common.

Soil Color Results Meadow Forest I had three different soil colors from the meadow, as opposedd to only 2 in the forest community. Soil color doesn’t really mean a difference in the health or actions of the soil, it just means a difference in the chemical makeup of the soil.

Discussion -Soils weren’t too different -Meadow used to be forest -Subtle differences -Sunlight -Herbaceous stems -Organic matter Herbaceous stems aere more abundant in meadow because there is more sunlight readily available Oragnic matter is higher in the forest due to pine needle droppings. These pine needles litter the ground and make it harder for herbaceous stems to grow because pine needle are very acidic, and are tough to break down (find a soource on this)

Conclusions -I found what I was expected to find. -Sandy loam with rocks in the meadow -Loamy Sand in the forest Let’s find out why?

The Future -Research didn’t give detail as to why the soils are different, only what I was to expect -This is EXCITING! -Why is this exciting? One thing that I had trouble finding was theories on why the soils would be different in these two areas. Which is cool because in the future I could replicate this experiment across Colorado and even more in order to get a good picture as to why the soils are the way they are in these two seperate areas.

Sources Ozalp, M., Erdogan Yuksel, E. and Yuksek, T. (2015), Soil Property Changes After Conversion from Forest to Pasture in Mount Sacinka, Artvin, Turkey. Land Degrad. Develop., doi: 10.1002/ldr.2353. Marston, Richard A. "Rocky Mountains | Mountains, North America." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. Date accessed 22 July 2015. Agnese, C., V. Bagarello, and M. Lovino. "PDF." PDF. ACSESS Digitial Library, 11 Sept. 2011. Web. 22 July 2015 DOI:10.2136/sssaj2011.0044. Ali, Jawad, Tor A. Benjaminsen, Ahmed` A. Ahmad, and Øystein B. Dick.1 Dec. 2005. "The Road to Deforestation: An Assessment of Forest Loss and Its Causes in Basho Valley, Northern Pakistan." The Road to Deforestation: An Assessment of Forest Loss and Its Causes in Basho Valley, Northern Pakistan. Global Environmental Change, Date accessed Web. 22 July 2015. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2005.06.004 Papp, Maria. 01 Dec. 1987 "A Six Year Study of a Secondary Succession after Deforestation in Nort." H Hungary. Institute of Botany, . Web. 22 July 2015. DOI 10.1007/BF02853238 Lynn, Warren C., and M. J. Pearson. " ." The Color of Soil. Natural Resources Conservation Service, n.d. Web Date Accessed. 22 July 2015.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ldr.2353/full http://www.britannica.com/place/Rocky-Mountains https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/sssaj/abstracts/75/5/1958 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378005000488 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02853238#page-1 http://extension.illinois.edu/soil/less_pln/color/color.htm