Regional and local patterns of soil nutrients at Rocky Mountain treelines

The soils across treeline should vary because of direct effects of biological differences of coniferous subalpine forest and the herbaceous alpine tundra in Colorado. In addition, the change in life form may indirectly affect soils because of interactions of the vegetation and wind-driven deposition processes. This is particularly important as nitrogen (N) saturation is a growing concern in high elevation ecosystems, and treeline is predicted to be a deposition hotspot. The vegetation transition at treeline provides an opportunity to test the effects of vegetation, topography, and external inputs on soils at three spatial scales. First, a regional evaluation of soils at eleven abrupt treeline sites was made comparing sites on east and west aspects both east and west of the Continental Divide (CD). Second, soils were compared in the adjacent forest and tundra. Finally, edge effects were assessed along transects spanning treeline. At the regional scale, total soil N was higher east of the CD and on east aspects while exchangeable calcium was higher on east aspects and at sites west of the CD. Higher lead (Pb) concentration in the forest organic horizon was associated with lower ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁷Pb ratios, an indication of greater anthropogenic Pb inputs. However, the spatial pattern in soil Pb suggests a different source area or transport mechanism than N. Within individual sites, the soils differed between the forest and tundra in almost every measured variable, but edge effects were minimal on both sides of these abrupt treelines. While a direct link between the observed soil patterns to deposition of external inputs cannot be made based on the study design, the observed soil patterns suggest that the impacts of acid deposition are amplified or attenuated by processes such as dust deposition.