Forest harvest can disrupt biogeochemical cycles with consequences for regenerating forest nutrition and drainage water quality. Few studies have examined harvest impacts on soil chemistry in conifer forests which have not been significantly affected by acid deposition, as found on the Canadian West Coast. This study investigates the effects of conventional clear-cutting on soil chemistry in Podzols of Roberts Creek Study Forest (southwestern Canada). We measured forest floor composition, soil pH and salt-extractable ions concentrations in undisturbed forested stands (control plots), stands harvested 2 to 5 years prior to sampling (cleared plots) and stands harvested 8 to 15 years prior to sampling (regenerating plots). We focused on the effects of forest harvest both on mean (differences in average values) and dispersion parameters (differences in variance between treatments).
We found that forest floors of harvested plots had lower phosphorus and potassium concentrations than control plots. In the mineral subsoil, exchangeable K was however higher in harvested than in control plots. This suggests that some of the K lost from the forest floor was preferentially retained in mineral horizons, possibly due to sorption to poorly crystalline and free aluminum and iron mineral phases. The subsoil of harvested plots was slightly more acidic than control plots. In contrast to classic studies of forest harvest impacts conducted in the U.S. Northwest, we did not measure pronounced acidification, a loss of base cations or an increase in exchangeable Al, most likely due to the much lower prior acid deposition load at our sites. The most notable harvest effect was a large increase in the variability of inorganic N concentration. This suggests an increase in micro-heterogeneity of post-harvest nutrient availability which has implications for the nutrition of regenerating vegetation, nutrient leaching potential as well as our ability to detect harvest-induced changes.