Effect of drought induced crown dieback on some nutrients in Persian oak forests
Subject Areas : environmental managementahmad hosseini 1 * , Mohammad Matinizadeh 2 , Reza Soleimani 3
1 - Associate professor, Department of Natural Resources, Ilam agricultural and natural resources Research and Education center, AREEO, Ilam, Iran. *(Corresponding Author)
2 - Associate professor, Department of Forest, Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, AREEO, Tehran, Iran.
3 - Assistant professor, Department of Agriculture, Ilam agricultural and natural resources Research and Education center, AREEO, Ilam, Iran.
Keywords: Oak Forest, Drought, Tree dieback, leaf and soil nutrients.,
Abstract :
Background and Objective: In recent years drought induced tree dieback has been occurred in the Zagros oak forests and has great impact on the nutrient status of soil and tree. This research was done to determine the changes of P, Ca and Mg values in the leaf, root and root zone soil of declining Persian oak trees and seasonal and annual variability of their values.
Material and Methodology: In this research variation of K, Ca and Mg nutrients in leaf, root and root zone soil of Persian oak trees was monitored in Melah-Siah forest, Ilam province during spring and summer seasons of 2013-2014 years. Oak trees were divided into four groups with six replicates based on the severity of crown dieback. Sampling of leaf, root and soil was randomly performed in four sides of tree crown and were transferred to the laboratory for analyzing of nutrients.
Findings: Results showed that the root zone soil of oak trees with different crown dieback intensities has equal condition in respected to texture and pH. The interaction effect of crown dieback and sampling season on concentration of Ca, Mg and K in leaf, root and soil of Persian oak stands was not significant. The amount of soil Ca, Mg and K had not significant variability between healthy and declining trees. The leaf K amount of declining trees in spring 2014 was more than that of healthy trees. The root K amount of declining trees in summer 2014 was more than that of healthy trees. The root Ca amount of declining trees in summer 2014 was less than that of healthy trees. The root Mg amount of declining trees in spring and summer 2014 was less than that of healthy trees. Also soil K and Ca concentration had significant decreasing changes from spring to summer. Leaf concentration of K, Ca and Mg had significant and irregular changes between seasons. Concentration variability of root Ca was increasing in 2013 and decreasing in 2014, and that of root Mg was decreasing in 2014.
Discussion and Conclusion: Concentration of studied elements in the body of oak trees has changed following drought and crown dieback, and their variability in the declining trees, with respected to their roles in tree vitality, was for resistance against drought condition and possibly perform of vital activities. Based on the results of this study the affected traits by drought are identified and used as biological indicators in further researches.
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