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Soil Water Responses to Wood Ash Addition to Acidic Upland Soils: Implications for Combatting Calcium Decline in Lakes

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Abstract

Calcium (Ca) concentrations in lakes have declined in many regions, and concerns have been expressed that Ca levels are falling below biologically significant thresholds. Wood ash additions to soil are typically used to combat soil acidification, and it is unclear whether wood ash additions to upland soils will lead to higher Ca leaching to surface waters. In this study we applied fly ash or bottom ash at 4 Mg ha−1 and 8 Mg ha−1 to upland soils at replicated plots in Haliburton Forest in central Ontario and measured soil water chemistry at 3 depths over 4 years. Increases in soil water Ca concentration following application were quite modest and occurred primarily in the fly ash treatments in the upper depth (0.3 m) during the first 2 years following application. There was no concomitant increase in pH or acid-neutralizing capacity primarily because of the high sulphate leaching associated with the fly ash treatments. Overall, these results show that wood ash addition to soils at moderate doses will have little impact on soil export to lakes.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Natural Resources Canada and the University of Toronto for funding this study. Funding for the lysimeters, plot setup, and soil water analyses came from a NSERC Collaborative Research and Development Grant to Honghi Tran (University of Toronto, Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry), Nathan Basiliko, and others. Additional funding came from an NSERC Discovery Grant awarded to Shaun Watmough. The authors would also like to thank Kevin Adkinson, Kristi Broad, Sharon Gibbs, Laura Hawdon, Emma Horrigan, Edward Kellaway, and Linda Vogel for their technical assistance with this project.

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Funding

This research was funded by Natural Resources Canada and the University of Toronto. Funding for the lysimeters, plot setup, and soil water analyses came from a NSERC Collaborative Research and Development Grant to Honghi Tran (University of Toronto, Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry), Nathan Basiliko, and others. Additional funding came from an NSERC Discovery Grant awarded to Shaun Watmough.

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Conceptualization, S.A.W. and H.D.D.; methodology, S.A.W. and H.D.D.; software, H.D.D.; formal analyses, H.D.D.; investigation, H.D.D. and C.R.R.; resources, S.A.W., N.B. and P.W.H.; data curation, H.D.D. and C.R.R.; writing—original draft preparation, H.D.D. and S.A.W.; writing—review and editing, N.B. and P.W.H.; visualization, H.D.D.; supervision, S.A.W.; project administration, S.A.W. and P.W.H.; funding acquisition, S.A.W., N.B., and P.W.H.

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Correspondence to Holly D. Deighton.

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Deighton, H.D., Reid, C., Basiliko, N. et al. Soil Water Responses to Wood Ash Addition to Acidic Upland Soils: Implications for Combatting Calcium Decline in Lakes. Water Air Soil Pollut 232, 191 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-021-05146-8

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