Ash fertilization increases long-term timber production in drained nitrogen-poor Scots pine peatlands

Abstract

Wood ash fertilization remarkably increases tree growth and hence, carbon sequestration in drained boreal peatland forests, particularly in nitrogen-rich Scots pine sites with limited phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). Because ash lacks nitrogen (N), N-deficient ombrotrophic and poor oligotrophic sites are generally considered unsuitable for ash fertilization. In this study, timber production was investigated in six field experiments in N-poor, drained Scots pine dominated peatlands in central Finland, where ash fertilization was applied 15-85 years earlier. Ash significantly increased tree growth in all the study sites. Unfertilized plots showed long-term average mean annual increment (MAI) of 2.01 m3ha-1a-1, whereas in fertilized plots MAI was 4.46 m3ha-1a-1. An analysis with non-linear mixed effects model revealed a faster volume yield development and higher asymptote of the mean curve in fertilized plots. Higher amount of K in the ash significantly increased the response. Fertilizations were financially lucrative: on average, the break-even cost surpassed the ash fertilization cost (390 € ha-1) more than two-fold at 5 % interest rate. The current nutrient status of fertilized trees was rather balanced. The results proved that the long-term growth response to ash fertilization in poor drained peatland sites is comparable to N-rich sites, but the response time is distinctively longer.