Some Short-term Effects of Lime and Fertilizers on a Sitka Spruce Plantation

Abstract

Laboratory incubation experiments show that lime, applied in the field or immediately before incubating, increases the rate at which Sitka spruce needles and forest floor litter decompose. Increases in CO ₂ production caused by lime were accompanied by the rapid assimilation of both native and added mineral N. Added mineral N also increased CO ₂ , produced from lime-treated spruce needles. Results are related to field data reported in the first paper of this series.