Johanna Jetsonen, Annamari Laurén, Heli Peltola, Olli Muhonen, Juha Nevalainen, Veli-Pekka Ikonen, Antti Kilpeläinen, Eeva-Stiina Tuittila, Elisa Männistö, Nicola Kokkonen, Marjo Palviainen. (2024). Effects of nitrogen fertilization on the ground vegetation cover and soil chemical properties in Scots pine and Norway spruce stands. Silva Fennica vol. 58 no. 1 article id 23058. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.23058

Keywords: boreal forest; competition index; forest fertilization; upland forests; vegetation cover

Highlights: Nitrogen (N) fertilization decreased the total cover of ground vegetation; N fertilization decreased the cover of mosses and dwarf shrubs and increased the cover of herbaceous plants; N concentration of the mor humus layer increased with the N fertilization; The magnitude of these changes depended on the intensity of the N fertilization.

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The aim of this study was to investigate the short-term effects of nitrogen (N) fertilization intensity on the ground vegetation cover and soil chemical properties in two Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and two Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) dominated stands on upland forest sites in Eastern Finland. The fertilizer was applied using a helicopter in the spruce stands and a forwarder in the pine stands. The distribution and the amount of fertilizer was measured with funnel traps. Cover of each species of ground vegetation was estimated before fertilization and 3–4 years after it in pine and 2–3 years after it in spruce stands. Further, the cover observations were aggregated by plant types. Based on measurements, we analyzed the effects of the funnel-trap-observed amount of N fertilizer on the cover and plant type composition of ground vegetation and soil N and C concentration. In addition, we analyzed the impacts of competition caused by trees on the ground vegetation cover based on competition indices. N fertilization increased the cover of herbaceous plants and decreased the cover of mosses and dwarf shrubs, and the total cover of ground vegetation. Further, it increased the N concentration of the mor humus layer. The magnitude of the changes increased with the intensity of the N fertilization. The competition caused by trees did not affect the cover of ground vegetation.

Jetsonen, Department of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 27, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland E-mail: johanna.jetsonen@helsinki.fi
Laurén, Department of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 27, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland; Faculty of Science and Forestry, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, 80101 Joensuu, Finland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6835-9568 E-mail: annamari.lauren@helsinki.fi
Peltola, Faculty of Science and Forestry, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, 80101 Joensuu, Finland E-mail: heli.peltola@uef.fi
Muhonen, Faculty of Science and Forestry, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, 80101 Joensuu, Finland https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4051-8567 E-mail: olli.muhonen@forestvital.com
Nevalainen, Faculty of Science and Forestry, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, 80101 Joensuu, Finland https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2972-4385 E-mail: juha.hs.nevalainen@gmail.com
Ikonen, Faculty of Science and Forestry, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, 80101 Joensuu, Finland https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1732-2922 E-mail: veli-pekka.ikonen@uef.fi
Kilpeläinen, Faculty of Science and Forestry, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, 80101 Joensuu, Finland https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4299-0578 E-mail: antti.kilpelainen@uef.fi
Tuittila, Faculty of Science and Forestry, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, 80101 Joensuu, Finland E-mail: eeva-stiina.tuittila@uef.fi
Männistö, Faculty of Science and Forestry, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, 80101 Joensuu, Finland https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3869-6739 E-mail: elisa.mannisto@uef.fi
Kokkonen, Faculty of Science and Forestry, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, 80101 Joensuu, Finland https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0197-2672 E-mail: nicola.kokkonen@uef.fi
Palviainen, Department of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 27, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland E-mail: marjo.palviainen@helsinki.fi

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