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Mg isotope composition in beech forest ecosystems and variations induced by liming: insights from four experimental sites in Northern France

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Abstract

Many forest soils are acidic and have very low plant-available pools of magnesium. Past and present sylvicultural, nutritional and/or climatic pressures endured by forest ecosystems can result in net losses of nutrients and ecosystem function losses. Liming with a carbonate product is an alternative to counteract these degradations but the effects of liming on the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients over time and the dynamics of Mg released from liming products are still unclear. We studied the Mg isotopes composition in four paired-treatment experimental beech forest ecosystems in northern France. At the sites where dolomitic lime was applied, the variation in exchangeable and foliar δ26Mg demonstrated the direct contribution of dolomite-derived Mg to the replenishment of topsoil exchangeable pools and to tree nutrition improvement: dolomite-derived Mg was incorporated into the biological cycling which allows its retention on the mid to long term in the soil–plant system. At the sites limed with calcium carbonate, the changes in exchangeable and foliar Mg contents and δ26Mg observed on the long term suggest that the applied product contained a small amount of Mg and/or that Mg cycling changed after liming, to cope in particular with the low Mg availability. Lastly, our results highlight the high δ26Mg of the organic layer (humus): fractionation processes occurring within this layer (mineralization/ageing of organic matter, preferential retention of 26 Mg) could explain these singular signatures that could greatly influence the topsoil Mg exchangeable pools.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support received from the Office National des Forêts, the Région Lorraine, GIP ECOFOR, ANAEE France and the LTSER Zone Atelier Bassin Moselle. We thank the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, «Géochimie des Enveloppes Externes» team for its welcome. MC-ICP-MS isotope analyses presented in this work were enabled by the IPGP multidisciplinary program PARI and by the Region Île-de-France SESAME Grant no. 12015908. The UR-1138 INRAE – Biogéochimie des Ecosystèmes Forestiers is supported by a grant overseen by the French National Research Agency (ANR) as part of the “Investissement d’Avenir” program (ANR-11-LABX-0002-01, Lab of Excellence ARBRE)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INRAE, BEF, 54000, Nancy, France

    Mélanie Court, Gregory van der Heijden, Benoit Pollier, Serge Didier, Claude Nys, Laurent Saint-André & Arnaud Legout

  2. Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Equipe Géochimie Des Enveloppes Externes (CNRS – UMR 7154), 1 Rue Jussieu, 75005, Paris, France

    Pascale Louvat & Julien Bouchez

  3. Université Felix-Houphouët Boigny d’Abidjan-Cocody, UFR Des Sciences de La Terre Et Des Ressources Minières, BPV 34, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

    Emile Bolou-Bi

  4. Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques (CNRS – UPR 2300), 15 Rue Notre Dame des Pauvres, 54501, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France

    Guillaume Caro

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  1. Mélanie Court
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  2. Gregory van der Heijden
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Court, M., van der Heijden, G., Louvat, P. et al. Mg isotope composition in beech forest ecosystems and variations induced by liming: insights from four experimental sites in Northern France. Biogeochemistry 153, 115–134 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-021-00766-y

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