Friederike Lang

University of Freiburg | Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg · Institute of Soil Sciences and Forest Nutrition

Reduced carbon assimilation by trees is often considered to lower the overall carbon sink function of drought-stressed forests. However, soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks may respond differently to drought than ecosystem carbon flux dynamics, leading to imprecise predictions of soil carbon sequestration when one value is inferred from the other. As...

Trees are known to be atmospheric methane (CH4) emitters. Little is known about seasonal dynamics of tree CH4 fluxes and relationships to environmental conditions. That prevents correct estimation of net annual tree and forest CH4 exchange. We aimed to explore the contribution of stem emissions to forest CH4 exchange. We determined seasonal CH4 flu...

Forest ecosystems are highly diverse and heterogeneous in organisms, soils, litter such as woody debris, and disturbance regimes. Nonetheless, the causes, intensity, self-organization, and functioning of forest soil heterogeneity within single stands have received little attention. The concept “pedogenic patches” is introduced to integrate ecology...

Zusammenfassung Um Wälder und ihre Ökosystemleistungen auch unter den Bedingungen des globalen Wandels zu erhalten und nachhaltig nutzen zu können, wird im Kontext der geplanten Novellierung des Bundeswaldgesetzes unter dem Begriff der Guten fachlichen Praxis (GfP) die Konkretisierung von Mindeststandards für die Waldwirtschaft diskutiert. Dies tri...

Humusauflagen bedecken die Mineralböden in Wäldern. Sie bestehen aus abgestorbenen Pflanzenresten in unterschiedlichen Zersetzungsstadien und erfüllen wichtige Funktionen im Nährstoff- und Wasserkreislauf der Waldökosysteme. Aktuelle Arbeiten zur Phosphor-Ernährung von Buchenwäldern legen nahe, dass mächtige Humusauflagen das Resultat ökosystemarer...

Fine roots are crucial for water and nutrient acquisition in plants; yet it is unknown how nutrient inputs and soil fertility in forests influence fine root biomass seasonal trajectories. Here, we hypothesized that standing fine root biomass increases with addition of a limited resource and shows different seasonal patterns depending on nutrient av...

Excessive N deposition leads to the conversion of previously N limited to N saturated forest ecosystems. The input of N can result in severe N/P imbalance and N-induced P deficiency. The present study investigates whether N addition induces P deficiency in beech saplings or if this can be counteracted by enhanced internal P (re)cycling. Furthermore...

Forest soil compaction caused by heavy machines can cause ecosystem degradation, reduced site productivity and increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Recent studies investigating the plant-mediated alleviation of soil compaction with black alder showed promising results (Alnus glutinosa). This study aimed to measure soil recovery and GHG fluxes...

Though soil texture is one of the most basic soil characteristics its quantification needs still laborious procedures. A commercially available, efficient approach has been introduced as Pario classic method where silt and clay fractions are calculated by inverse fitting of transducer‐measured suspension pressure curves to modeled Stokes’ law of se...

Sustainable forest management requires understanding of ecosystem phosphorus (P) cycling. Lang et al. (2017) [Biogeochemistry, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-017-0375-0] introduced the concept of P-acquiring vs. P-recycling nutrition strategies for European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forests on silicate parent material, and demonstrated a change fr...

Der Klimawandel verändert unsere Wälder auf vielfältige Weise. Dabei werden negative Auswirkungen auf die Wälder, ihre Ökosystemleistungen und die Waldwirtschaft höchstwahrscheinlich überwiegen. Neben dem Anstieg der Temperatur und Änderung der Niederschlagsverteilung sind es vor allem die Zunahme von Extremereignissen und ihren Interaktionen, die...

N and P are essential macronutrients for all organisms. How shifts in the availability of N or P affect fungal communities in temperate forests is not well understood. Here, we conducted a factorial P × N fertilization experiment to disentangle the effects of nutrient availability on soil-residing, root-associated, and ectomycorrhizal fungi in beec...

Groundwater quality in urban catchments is endangered by the input of biocides, such as those used in facade paints to suppress algae and fungal growth and washed off by heavy rainfall. Their retention in storm water infiltration systems (SIS) depends, in addition to their molecular properties, on chemical properties and structure of the integrated...

The phosphorus (P) concentration of soil solution is of key importance for plant nutrition. During large rainfall events, the P concentration is altered by lateral and vertical subsurface storm flow (SSF) that facilitates P mobilization, redistribution within the soil profile and potential P export from the ecosystem. These processes are not well s...

Phosphorus (P) is preferentially bound to colloids in soil. On the one hand, colloids may facilitate soil P leaching leading to a decrease of plant available P, but on the other hand they can carry P to plant roots, thus supporting the P uptake of plants. We tested the magnitude and the kinetics of P delivery by colloids into a P sink mimicking pla...

The breakdown of soil aggregates and the extraction of particulate organic matter (POM) by ultrasonication and density fractionation is a method widely used in soil organic matter (SOM) analyses. It has recently also been used for the extraction of microplastic from soil samples. However, the investigation of POM physiochemical properties and ecolo...

The fate of engineered nanoparticles in the aquatic-terrestrial transition zone is decisive for their effect in the environment. However, our knowledge on processes within this interface is rather low. Therefore,...

Root exudation of citrate is discussed as mechanism to mobilize P from the soils' solid phase. Microbial processes can mitigate the mobilization efficiency of citrate. Due to higher microbial activity in topsoils compared to subsoils, we hypothesized a lower mobilization efficiency of exuded citrate in topsoils than in the subsoils. As a model syst...

Nutrient imbalances cause the deterioration of tree health in European forests, but the underlying physiological mechanisms are unknown. Here, we investigated the consequences of decreasing root carbohydrate reserves for phosphorus (P) mobilisation and uptake by forest trees. In P‐rich and P‐poor beech (Fagus sylvatica) forests, naturally grown, yo...

Tree roots penetrate the soil to several meters depth, but the role of subsoils for the supply of nutrient elements such as phosphorus (P) to the trees is poorly understood. Here, we tested the hypothesis that increased P deficiency in the topsoil results in an increased microbial recycling of P from the forest subsoil. We sampled soils from four G...

Urban stromwater infiltration through swale-trench systems into groundwater increases urban groundwater recharge and hence reduces negative effects of urbanisation on the water balance. At the same time, this measure may endanger groundwater quality. Amongst other uses, biocides are applied to supress algae and fungi growth on roofs or facades and...

Agroforestry is often discussed as a strategy that can be used both for the adaptation to and the mitigation of climate change effects. The climate of southern Africa is predicted to be severely affected by such changes. With agriculture noted as the continent's largest economic sector, issues such as food security and land degradation are in the f...

Climate change makes it necessary to re-evaluate the erosion potential of forest infrastructure. We used the Forest Service WEPP interfaces (FS WEPP) to compare soil erosion potentials of two competing logging practices in steep terrain in the Northern Black Forest, Germany: (1) Felling with harvesters and logging with forwarders in slope line with...

Roots are among the major controls of nutrient and C cycles and together with mycorrhizal fungi they are assumed to play a key role especially in the P nutrition of forest ecosystems. Current publications emphasized that the size distribution of fine roots reflects the crucial impact of roots on biogeochemical cycles. However, we know hardly anythi...

The breakdown of soil aggregates and the extraction of particulate organic matter (POM) by ultrasonication and density fractionation is a method widely used in soil organic matter (SOM) analyses. It has recently also been used for the extraction of microplastic from soil samples. However, the investigation of some POM physiochemical properties and...

Phosphorus (P) is a limiting factor of primary productivity in most forest ecosystems but little is known about retention within and losses of P from forests. Subsurface flow (SSF) is one of the important pathways of P export but few attempts exist to quantify it. We present results of sprinkling experiments with ca. 150 mm, 2H labelled, total rain...

Fluorescent dyes like uranine (UR) and sulforhodamine B (SRB) have been used for decades as artificial tracers in hydrological studies. Recently, attempts have been made to trace organic pollutants in soil with such dyes, but the knowledge of the controls of sorption of UR and SRB in soils is still incomplete and poorly standardised. For this reaso...

Berichte über Landwirtschaft (ISSN 2196-5099)

Declining foliar phosphorus (P) levels call increasing attention to the cycling of this element in temperate forests. We explored the fluxes of P in a temperate mixed deciduous forest ecosystem in six distinct hydrological compartments: Bulk precipitation and throughfall, soil water draining laterally from three different soil depths (0-15, 15-150,...

In forest ecosystems, deadwood can improve carbon storage, nutrient availability, and water holding capacity in soils. Yet the effect of organic matter from deadwood such as lignin on these soil functions and their regulators are unknown. We hypothesized that carbon storage, exchangeable cations, and pore space increase with the quantity of lignin-...

Climate change is already a measurable reality generating significant social, economic and environmental challenges, impacting sustainable development around the globe. The African continent is most vulnerable to the forecasted change in global climate, southern Africa in particular will face severe challenges within the upcoming decades. Innovativ...

The compaction of forest soils can deteriorate soil aeration, leading to decreased CH4 uptake and increased N2O efflux. Black alder (Alnus glutinosa) may accelerate soil structure regeneration as it can grow roots under anaerobic soil conditions. However, symbiotic nitrogen fixation by alder can have undesirable side-effects on greenhouse gas (GHG)...

Fluorescent dyes like uranine (UR) and sulforhodamine B (SRB) have been used as artificial tracers in hydrological studies for decades. Recently, efforts have been intensified to enable their application to characterise environmental compartments such as soils and derive insights into the fate of pesticides. However, existing knowledge on the contr...

New and innovative land use solutions are needed to adapt to a rapidly changing climate and to mitigate the predicted impacts on rural livelihoods. Projected changes to current climate patterns are suggested to severely impact southern Africa in the near future. This may be realised as an increase in drought and flooding events and shifts in rainfa...

Soil structural traits provide links between soil structure and ecosystem functioning. The size and stability of soil aggregates are assumed to provide information on aggregate formation and turnover. A standard method to analyse these traits is to determine the mass distribution on sieves. The major drawback of this method is the small size resolu...

Molecular diffusion is commonly assumed as main physical process of gas transport in soils. However, non-diffusive gas transport processes like the so-called pressure-pumping effect can affect soil gas transport significantly. The pressure-pumping effect has only been detected indirectly and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Using a novel i...

Sonication is widely used for disruption of suspended soil aggregates. Calorimetric calibration allows for determining sonication power and applied energy as a measure for aggregate disrupting forces. Yet other properties of sonication devices (e.g., oscillation frequency and amplitude, sonotrode diameter) as well as procedure details (soil‐to‐wate...

The choice of uranine (UR) and sulforhodamine B (SRB) as hydrological tracers has recently been questioned since they might interact with the soil or become degraded. In this context, microbiological degradation of UR and SRB and the factors influencing it remain poorly studied. Here, we conducted a long-term mesocosm experiment where the effects o...

Fluorescent dyes like uranine (UR) and sulforhodamine B (SRB) have been used as artificial tracers in hydrological studies for decades. Recently, efforts have been intensified to enable their application to trace soil processes. Some researchers have used UR and SRB to characterise environmental compartments and derive insights into the fate of pes...

AimsThe accumulation of organic layers in forests is linked to decreasing nutrient availability. Organic layers might represent a source of phosphorus (P) nutrition of trees in forests. Our aims were i) to test if the fate of P in a tree sapling-soil system differs between nutrient-poor and nutrient-rich sites, and ii) to assess the influence of or...

Riverbank filtration systems are important structures that ensure the cleaning of infiltrating surface water for drinking water production. In our study, we investigated the potential risk for a breakthrough of environmentally aged silver nanoparticles (Ag NP) through these systems. Additionally, we identified factors leading to the remobilization...

Background and aims Phosphorus (P) availability is crucial for forest ecosystem productivity and soil organic matter (SOM) is an important source for P. This study was conducted to reveal carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and P distributions in functional SOM fractions. We hypothesised that (1) most of the organic P (Porg) is part of the particulate SOM, (2...

Background The dynamics of phosphorus (P) in the environment is important for regulating nutrient cycles in natural and managed ecosystems and an integral part in assessing biological resilience against environmental change. Organic P (Po) compounds play key roles in biological and ecosystems function in the terrestrial environment being critical t...

Background and aimsNanoparticles and colloids affect the mobilisation and availability of phosphorus for plants and microorganisms in soils. We aimed to give a description of colloid sizes and composition from forest soil profiles and to evaluate the size-related quality of colloids for P fixation. Methods We investigated the size-dependent element...

The article “Organic phosphorus in the terrestrial environment: a perspective on the state of the art and future priorities”, written by Timothy S George et al., was originally published with incorrect affiliation information for one of the co-authors, E. Klumpp.

To estimate the impact of highly erosive precipitation on existing and planned forest infrastructure we deem the Forest Service WEPP Interfaces, based on the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP), feasible. As a first step towards testing WEPP and especially the implemented weather generator CLIGEN for conditions in Germany we evaluated the appli...

Urban stromwater infiltration through swale-trench systems into groundwater increases urban groundwater recharge and hence reduces negative effects of urbanisation on the water balance. At the same time, this measure may endanger groundwater quality. Amongst other uses, biocides are applied to supress algae and fungi growth on roofs or facades and...

Soil deformation and compaction is a widespread problem in today’s highly mechanized forestry. In German forests extensive areas are affected by soil compaction, hence regeneration strategies for the management of these sites have to be developed. The formation of bio pores by roots of compaction tolerant plant species is assumed to improve aeratio...

Deadwood plays a crucial role in forest ecosystems, yet its impact on soil properties and specifically soil organic matter (SOM) stabilization is hitherto not fully understood or studied. We hypothesized that downed deadwood would enhance the light, labile SOM fraction in forest topsoils, and that those changes would be enhanced by advanced decay a...

Naturally produced by microbial processes in soil, nitrous oxide (N2O) is an important greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. Accordingly, there is a need to accurately quantify the capability of forest ecosystems to exchange N2O with the atmosphere. While N2O emissions from soils have been well studied, trees have so far been overlooked in...

Phosphorus availability may shape plant–microorganism–soil interactions in forest ecosystems. Our aim was to quantify the interactions between soil P availability and P nutrition strategies of European beech (Fagus sylvatica) forests. We assumed that plants and microorganisms of P-rich forests carry over mineral-bound P into the biogeochemical P cy...

Forest harvesting removes and redistributes nutrients through felling and forwarding. Substantial quantities of nutrients can accumulate in brash mats on permanent skid trails, but their availability and uptake after multiple thinnings on soils susceptible to leaching are unknown. In this study, we modeled the deposition of base cations and phospho...

We review the state-of-the-art of cross-disciplinary knowledge on phosphorus (P) cycling in temperate forest ecosystems, focused at studies from hydrology, biology, biogeochemistry, soil-, and geosciences. Changes in soil P stocks during long-term ecosystem development are addressed briefly; the general ranges of specific P pools and P fluxes withi...

The use of heavy machinery for timber harvesting causes soil damage, which may restrict forest soil functions over decades. Numerous studies have demonstrated the negative impact of soil compaction on soil physical properties, but the effects of compaction of forest soils on soil chemical and biological processes like the phosphorus availability ar...