Grier, Charles C.; Cole, Dale. 1972. Elemental transport changes occurring during development of a second-growth Douglas-fir ecosystem. In: Research on coniferous forest ecosystems: first year progress in the Coniferous Forest Biome, US/IBP: Proceedings of a symposium; 1972 March 23-24; Bellingham, WA. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station: 103-113.
Mineral cycling processes in a second-growth Douglas-fir ecosystem have been monitored for nearly 10 yearsat the A. E. Thompson Research Center in western Washington. In this interval, substantial year-to-yeardifferences in quantities of elements transferred have been observed. For example, a comparison of transfersduring the 1964-65 and 1970-71 measurement years showed that input of calcium by precipitation increasedroughly 300 percent while calcium transfer by throughfall, stem flow, and leaching from the forest floorincreased roughly 600 percent, 350 percent and 220 percent, respectively. In the same interval, the muss andelemental content of the standing crop increased roughly 15 percent while forest floor mass and elementalcontent remained constant. A portion of this difference is related to the increased mass accumulated in thestanding crop. However, the major factor causing this large difference is climatic variation. These differences inelemental transfer indicate the need for continuous observation of transfer processes to resolve the effects ofecosystem development on mineral cycling against this background of climatic variation.