NITRIFICATION IN CONIFEROUS FOREST SOILS

Net nitrification rates tend to be low or negligible in the forest floor of many coniferous forests of North-East Scotland. The most likely process controls are substrate availability, pH, allelopathy, water potential, nutrient status and temperature. These are discussed in relation to field and laboratory studies of net and potential rates of nitrification. Fungi make up by far the largest part of the nitrifier community in the coniferous forest floor. Very little is known about the distribution and activity of autotrophs in these systems, although it is certain that in vitro evidence suggesting autotrophs cannot nitrify at pH levels characteristic of coniferous forest soils is unrealistic. Because of the metabolic diversity of nitrifying fungi, a variety of organic and inorganic nitrification pathways may exist in coniferous forests. The possible involvement of free radicles in fungal nitrification in coniferous forest soils is also suggested. A complete understanding of nitrification in coniferous forest soils can only result from field characterisation of N flux such as through the use of 15N. This must be combined with ecophysiological characterisation of the organisms involved in order that the complexity of nitrification in coniferous forest soils can be resolved. © 1990 Kluwer Academic Publishers.