The first two articles in issue 31/2018 were published in the international scientific journal Icelandic Agricultural Sciences.
The first article, Differences in the performance of Icelandic birch in a 14-year experiment in Miðnesheiði, reports a comparative experiment with 25 quails of Icelandic birch from all over the country. Miðnesheiði is a windy area with salt deposits and the soil is poor and the forestry there is clean. The purpose of the study was to find birch groves that were best suited for this area. The experiment began in 1998 and in 2003 lupine plants were planted inside the birch. In 2012, fourteen years after the birch was planted, the results were evaluated.
Southern birch weeds were better found in Miðnesheiði than weeds from other parts of the country. The height and survival of the poem Þórsmörk proved to be the best. Local quarries from Reykjanes thrived worse than other southern quarries. When cultivating birch forest on infertile soil in Suðurnes, it is recommended to emphasize the crops that have shown the best performance in the experiment. It is also recommended to apply the plants in the first years after planting and at the same time to sow lupine.
The second article, Effects of elevated soil temperature the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), nitric oxide (NO) and nitric acid (HONO) in forest soils in the South, deals with research that is part of a large research project, ForHot (www.forhot.is), on the effects of increased soil temperature following the Suðurlandsskjálftan earthquake in 2008 on ecosystems and ecosystem processes.
In this study, measurements were made on the flow of methane (CH4), laughing gas (N2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) with increased soil temperature in the fold in the spruce forest. Emissions of the same gases were measured in soil cores in a laboratory at 20 ° C, in addition to the gases nitric oxide (NO) and nitric acid (HONO).
The results showed that eight years of soil warming had changed both the chemical composition and microbial flora of the soil and thus the ability to produce the aforementioned gases. However, the production capacity of CO2, CH4 and N2O in a laboratory at 20 ° C not regularly with increased temperature in the fold. The authors discuss the adaptation of microorganisms to increased temperature, but also consider whether some of the gases released in nature may be from greater depths, of geological origin, rather than due to decay in the soil.
This will be the first Icelandic study to examine the release of nitric acid (HONO) from the soil.