Easily extractable nutrients in the surface peat layer of virgin sedge-pine swamps.

Abstract

The paper deals with the nutrient status of surface peat layer from virgin sedge-pine swamps and its relationship to peatland types. When the nutrients are expressed in mg/100 g peat, only easily extractable Ca and Mg correspond to the productivity status of the peatland type. N, P, and K levels in the herb rich sedge-pine swamp are generally lower than in the small sedge-pine swamps, which are the least productive ones. The differences between the site types in all the five nutrients become much clearer when the results are expressed in kg/ha. P, K, and Ca are significantly different between the site types, and correspond to the productivity of the site type. For N and Mg the same tendency can be seen. The organically bound nutrients N, and to a lesser extent, P appear to comply with the hypothesis of an increase in nutrient availability in Southern Finland. The PDF includes a summary in Finnish.