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Research article2024Peer reviewedOpen access

Ditches show systematic impacts on soil and vegetation properties across the Swedish forest landscape

Agren, Anneli M.; Anderson, Olivia; Lidberg, William; Oquist, Mats; Hasselquist, Eliza Maher

Abstract

Novel mapping methods using AI have led to improved mapping of the extent of drainage systems, but the full scope of the effects of drainage on ecosystems has yet to be understood. By combining ditches mapped with remote sensing and AI methods with soil data from the Swedish Forest Soil Inventory, and vegetation data from the National Forest Inventory we identified 4 126 survey plots within 100 m of a ditch. The inventory data span across three biomes; the northern boreal zone, the hemiboreal zone, and the temperate zone. We explored if soils and vegetation close to ditches were indeed different from the surrounding landscape. The large number of plots spread widely across the Swedish forest landscape spanning different physiographic regions, climates, topography, soils, and vegetation made it possible to identify the general effect of drainage on soil properties, tree productivity, and plant species composition. We found a surprisingly large amount of ditches on mineral soils (50-70%, depending on the definition of peatlands). Forest growth was affected, with higher growth rates of trees closer to ditches, particularly Norway spruce. Sphagnum mosses - a key indicator of wet soils - were less common near ditches, where they were replaced by feather mosses. The soil bulk density was higher closer to ditches, as was the concentration of metals that are typically associated with organic matter (Al), while concentrations of metals with a lower affinity for organic material decreased toward ditches (Na, K, Mg). The results from mineral soils and peat soils often differed. For example, N and tree volume increased toward ditches, but on different levels for peat and mineral soils, while the thickness of the humus layer and Pleurozium schreberi cover showed opposite patterns for the different soils. Clearly, ditches have affected the entire Swedish forest landscape, driving it towards a drier, more spruce-dominated productive forested ecosystem and away from wetland ecosystems like mires and littoral areas along streams. Furthermore, the biogeochemistry of the soils and understory species cover near ditches have changed, potentially irreversibly, at least within human time frames, and have implications for restoration goals and the future of forestry.

Keywords

Ditches; Peat soils; Mineral soils; Biogeochemistry; Tree productivity; Species cover

Published in

Forest Ecology and Management
2024, Volume: 555, article number: 121707
Publisher: ELSEVIER