Forest ecosystem recovery in the southeast US: soil ecology as an essential component of ecosystem management

The forestry industry in the southeastern United States relies upon soils that are highly eroded and depleted of their original organic matter and nutrient content. Pro-active land management can ensure continued and possibly increased production and revenue through the management and recovery of the soil resource. With an emphasis on loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) forests, this review integrates land-use history, pine ecology, silviculture, soil ecological research and the implications for forest management into a single discussion. Promoting soil recovery involves knowledge of ecosystem history and disturbance as well as nutrient cycling mechanisms, pools, fluxes and soil forming factors. Research on the rhizosphere is an area that is needed. Recovery of regional soils may confer benefits of drought and disease resistance. The goal of sustainable forestry is compatible with soil recovery; however, the technology and practices of modern forestry deserve thorough evaluation. Emphasis on the continued production of commodities, the agricultural model, is much different from managing for the functioning of healthy forest ecosystems. Many of the practices and outcomes of intensive forest management, including short rotations, harrowing, subsoiling, and burning or removal of logging slash, seem to be at odds with the goal of soil recovery. Best management practices that foster soil recovery include less intensive stand utilization and reduced soil disturbance. Stem-only harvest and longer rotations permit a recovery of soil biodiversity and an accrual of detritus and soil organic matter. Windrowing and similar techniques have dramatic and lasting effects on soil development. No-tillage agriculture as a model for pine plantations is discussed.