Looking for a growth response in three

MELNHE stands

Do fertilized trees grow faster?

Shoestring REU

Eli Egan-Anderson

Cornell ‘15

Background

Nitrogen (N) is one of the major limiting

nutrients for net primary production (NPP)

and is required in large amounts by plants

(Vitousek and

Howarth 1991)

It is one of the

requirements of

photosynthesis

Co-limitation

Multiple Element Limitation (MEL) describes

plants effort allocation for acquiring different

nutrients (Rastetter 1997)

Phosphorus (P) has been found to be a major

limiting factor when N is available in large

quantities (Walker and Syers 1976)

In N+P plots there are larger amounts of

organically available N than in plots where just

N was added (Fisk et al 2014)

Predictions for the Study

I expect to see positive growth in all stands

where fertilizer has been added

More growth in N plots of younger stands

I expect the most growth will be found in N+P

plots at young ages

Methods

Diameter growth inventory stands

C1, C2 and C6

C1 last cut in 1990

C2 last cut in 1988

C6 last cut in 1975

All trees with diameters over 10

cm in 2011 were measured and

recorded

Methods Cont.

Nail was placed at 1.57 m

and a 20 cm dowel was

hung from the nail to

measure below at DBH

Compared findings to pre-

treatment data from 2011

2014 Basal Area per hectare

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35C

on

tro

l N

N +

P P Ca

Co

ntr

ol N

N +

P P

Co

ntr

ol N

N+P P C

a

C1 C2 C6

Bas

al A

rea

(m2

/he

ctar

e)

Basal Area per Hectare

YB

WB

STM

SM

RS

RO

RM

PC

HEM

FIR

BE

BA

ASH

10

7

13

15

19

5

104

2

21

23 22 22 12

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

Control N P N+P Ca

Basal

Are

a G

row

th (

cm

2/y

ear)

White Birch Basal Area Growth

C1

C2

C6

White Birch Results

o C1 p=0.21

o C2 p=0.04

o C6 p=0.94

Pin Cherry Results

o C1 p= 0.39

o C2 p= 0.72

o C6 p= 0.35

4

5

8

5

13

3

2

8

1

26

7

1

6

0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

Control N P N+P Ca

Ba

sa

l A

rea

Gro

wth

(c

m2

/ye

ar)

Pin Cherry Basal Area Growth

C1

C2

C6

Red Maple Results

o C2 p=0.78

o C6 p=0.24

12

17

12

101531 15

30

14

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

Control N P N+P Ca

Ba

sa

l A

rea

Gro

wth

(c

m2

/ye

ar)

Red Maple Basal Area Growth

C2

C6

American Beech Results

o C2 p = 0.12

o C6 p = 0.56

1

8

11

3

12

16

17

18

18

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

Control N P N+P Ca

Basal

Are

a G

row

th (

cm

2/y

ear)

American Beech Basal Area Growth

C2

C6

Discussion

Only white birches in C2 have shown significant growth from fertilizer treatments

Young stands react more strongly to N

White birch is an early successional tree

Small sample sizes in some plots make for weak comparison tests 0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

Control N N+P P

Basal

Are

a G

row

th (

cm

2)

C2 White Birch Basal Area Growth

p=0.04

Implications of the Study

Help us to understand nutrient limitations of

the Northern forests

Addresses factors we may see with an

increase in N deposition

Helps to understand cost benefit of fertilizers

as an option for silvicultural practices

We will be remeasuring in August to see

growth and measuring additional stands

Acknowledgements and

Citations

Our glorious leader (Adam Wild)

Shinjini Goswami

Ruth Yanai

Fisk M. Ratliff T. Goswami, S and Yanai, R (2014). Synergistic soil

response to nitrogen plus phosphorus. fertilization in hardwood forests.

Biogeochemistry DOI 10.1007/s10533-013-9918-1

Rastetter, E. B., G. I. Ågren and G. R. Shaver. 1997. Responses of N-

limited ecosystems to increased CO2: A balanced-nutrition, coupled-

element-cycles model. Ecological Applications 7:444-460.

Vitousek, P. M., and R. W. Howarth. 1991. Nitrogen limitation on land

and in the sea—How can it occur. Biogeochemistry 13:87–115.

Walker, T and Syers, J. 1976. The fate of phosphorus during

pedogenesis. Geoderma 15(1): 1-19

Timothy Fahey

Matt Vadeboncoeur

Shoestringers