Land-use history, forest conversion, and soil organic carbon in pine plantations and native forests of south eastern Australia

Abstract

Land-use history - the number, type, and duration of previous land uses - is relevant to many questions regarding land-use effects on soil carbon, but is infrequently reported. We examine the importance of land-use history variables, as well as topographic and edaphic variables, on soil C in a range of forest types - native forest, pine plantations, secondary forest and rehabilitated forest - at three contrasting locations in south eastern Australia. Our comparisons include a novel forest conversion of exotic pine plantations to native, broadleaf forest. Using nested ANOVAs, we detected few differences in soil C concentration indices (total C, microbial biomass C, K2SO4-C) and C content amon..