Leaching of nitrogen and phenolics from wood waste and co-composts used for road rehabilitation.

Rehabilitation and reforestation of disused forest roads and landings can be facilitated by the incorporation of organic matter. The British Columbia forest industry creates residual woody materials, but they are nutrient poor and may leach phenolic compounds. We assessed the potential for wood wastes (chipped cedar wood waste, sort-yard waste, hogfuel) and co-composts with shellfish waste or municipal biosolids to provide inorganic N and release phenolics and condensed tannins, compared with natural forest floor and mineral soil. Initial concentrations of tannins and phenolics were low, and 13C cross-polarization and magic-angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy showed that composts were still dominated by wood. During a 426-d laboratory leaching experiment, release of phenolics from woody amendments (other than cedar wood) was lower than from native forest floor. The pH levels of woody amendments and their leachates were also within the range of native forest floor and soil (except cedar wood, which was the most acidic material). Co-composts had higher total N and available P, greatly reduced tannins and phenolics, and negligible leaching of polyphenols. Uncomposted materials released very little N during the incubation. Hogfuel-biosolids compost released a large amount of nitrate, but only during the first 100 d. Shrimp-wood compost released moderate amounts of ammonium and nitrate throughout the incubation, had high available P and low tannin content, and released less polyphenols than did native forest floors. Our results indicate that appropriate use of these amendments does not pose an environmental risk with regard to the parameters measured in this study.

Recreating a functioning forest soil in reclaimed oil sands in northern alberta: an approach for measuring success in ecological restoration.

During oil-sands mining all vegetation, soil, overburden, and oil sand is removed, leaving pits several kilometers wide and up to 100 m deep. These pits are reclaimed through a variety of treatments using subsoil or a mixed peat-mineral soil cap. Using nonmetric multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis of measurements of ecosystem function, reclamation treatments of several age classes were compared with a range of natural forest ecotypes to discover which treatments had created ecosystems similar to natural forest ecotypes and at what age this occurred. Ecosystem function was estimated from bioavailable nutrients, plant community composition, litter decomposition rate, and development of a surface organic layer. On the reclamation treatments, availability of nitrate, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur were generally higher than in the natural forest ecotypes, while ammonium, P, K, and Mn were generally lower. Reclamation treatments tended to have more bare ground, grasses, and forbs but less moss, lichen, shrubs, trees, or woody debris than natural forests. Rates of litter decomposition were lower on all reclamation treatments. Development of an organic layer appeared to be facilitated by the presence of shrubs. With repeated applications of fertilizers, measured variables for the peat-mineral amendments fell within the range of natural variability at about 20 yr. An intermediate subsoil layer reduced the need for fertilizer and conditions resembling natural forests were reached about 15 yr after a single fertilizer application. Treatments over tailings sand receiving only one application of fertilizer appeared to be on a different trajectory to a novel ecosystem.

Decomposition and nitrogen mineralization from biosolids and other organic materials: relationship with initial chemistry.

Biosolids are effective forest fertilizers. In order to facilitate their use it is important that one be able to predict the amount and rate of mineralization of nutrients, particularly nitrogen, and the relationship between substrate chemistry and N release. We examined the relationships between substrate quality and nitrogen release in a variety of organic materials. Rates of decomposition and net N mineralization from four biosolids, wheat straw, paper fines, and Douglas-fir [Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco] needle litter were measured during 391-d incubations in a greenhouse, and at two field sites in wet coastal and dry interior forests. Decomposition rates were best predicted by a model incorporating the ratio of carbon to organic matter. The decomposition model extrapolated well to the field when site-specific correction factors were applied. There was a weak relationship between rates of decomposition and net N mineralization. Rates of net N mineralization were best predicted by a model incorporating the initial organic N concentration and the proportion of phenolic C determined from solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The mineralization model extrapolated less well to the field, but the effect of substrate chemistry was still apparent. Among the four biosolids there was a strong correlation between organic N concentration and indices or protein determined from 13C NMR, suggesting that these protein indices may be useful for predicting N mineralization from biosolids. There was some evidence that the protein content and N mineralization in biosolids may be predictable from the sewage treatment process employed.

Late benign syphilis of the skin.

Two cases of late cutaneous syphilis are presented. After treatment for secondary syphilis in 1957 and retreatment for rising VDRL titers ten years later, one patient had developed a nodular syphilid. The other had several gummas. He had two quantitative nonreactive vDRL tests and a negative Treponema pallidum immobilization (TPI) test, but two reactive fluorescent treponemal antibody absorption (FTA-ABS) tests. Syphilis was suspected histologically and was confirmed by the specific serologic testing, the characteristic clinical presentation, and the prompt response to penicillin treatment. The clinical, serologic, histologic, therapeutic, and pathogenetic aspects of late benign syphilis of the skin are discussed.

Characterization of humus microbial communities in adjacent forest types that differ in nitrogen availability.

To address the link between soil microbial community composition and soil processes, we investigated the microbial communities in forest floors of two forest types that differ substantially in nitrogen availability. Cedar-hemlock (CH) and hemlock-amabilis fir (HA) forests are both common on northern Vancouver Island, B.C., occurring adjacently across the landscape. CH forest floors have low nitrogen availability and HA high nitrogen availability. Total microbial biomass was assessed using chloroform fumigation-extraction and community composition was assessed using several cultivation-independent approaches: denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of the bacterial communities, ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (RISA) of the bacterial and fungal communities, and phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) profiles of the whole microbial community. We did not detect differences in the bacterial communities of each forest type using DGGE and RISA, but differences in the fungal communities were detected using RISA. PLFA analysis detected subtle differences in overall composition of the microbial community between the forest types, as well as in particular groups of organisms. Fungal PLFAs were more abundant in the nitrogen-poor CH forests. Bacteria were proportionally more abundant in HA forests than CH in the lower humus layer, and Gram-positive bacteria were proportionally more abundant in HA forests irrespective of layer. Bacterial and fungal communities were distinct in the F, upper humus, and lower humus layers of the forest floor and total biomass decreased in deeper layers. These results indicate that there are distinct patterns in forest floor microbial community composition at the landscape scale, which may be important for understanding nutrient availability to forest vegetation.