Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Woodland makes up more than two thirds of Sweden’s land area. Forests are of great value for the
environment, the Swedish economy and recreational activities. Air pollutants from manmade
activities have a negative effect on the wellbeing of forests. Several programs have been created to
counteract the impact air pollutants have on forests. Sweden has participated in two monitoring
programs of forest soil: BioSoil and Integrerad monitoring (IM). BioSoil is a program on EU level and
in the Swedish participation 786 soil profiles were examined. IM is conducted at four forest
ecosystems: Gårdsjön, Aneboda, Kindla and Gammtratten. The aim of the program is to increase the
understanding of processes in forests soils that are affected by air pollutants. To determine how
representative IM is for Swedish forest soil a comparison of several soil variables were conducted
between selected soil profiles in the different IM areas with BioSoil, which is thought to have a good
representation of Swedish forest soil.

For several of the examined variables notable differences were found for the different programs. The
most notable difference was for pH in the humus layer where all the IM profiles had a value markedly
lower compared to BioSoil. In the mineral soil the pH was lower in Gårdsjön but on similar levels as in
BioSoil for the other IM areas. Most values that deviated from Biosoil were found in Gårdsjön were
almost half of all the variables included in the study deviated considerably. The deviations were in
most cases throughout the soil profile. A few obvious deviations were found in the other IM areas
and mainly located either in the humus or in the mineral soil. The deviations from BioSoil found in
Gårdsjön are thought to be due to its geographical location on the Swedish west coast where rainfall
and deposition is markedly higher than in the rest of Sweden. The deviations in Gammtratten
correspond to conditions for that specific region. The area is the only one in the IM program located
in the northern part of Sweden where there is a lower deposition than in the southern parts of
Sweden.

The numerous and markedly strong IM value deviations from those of BioSoil for Gårdsjön are
thought to be specific and representative for the region of west Gothland area and the Swedish west
coast. Since only a few deviations were found in Aneboda, Kindla and Gammtratten that also were
not as markedly as in Gårdsjön, the profiles are thought to be representative of typical Swedish
forest soils. Therefore, it is very likely that these areas fairly good represent the typical Swedish
forest soils.