Soil biogeochemical responses to the deposition of anadromous fish carcasses in inland riparian forests of the Pacific Northwest, USA

The historic abundance of salmonids returning to natal streams of the inland Pacific Northwest, USA may have constituted a major nutrient influx into these commonly oligotrophic ecosystems. Inland ecosystems tend to be warmer and dryer as well as more nutrient limited than coastal ecosystems. Therefore, understanding how these inland conditions influence the soil biogeochemical responses to salmon carcass deposition in riparian forests is a vital step in appropriately mitigating for the loss of this nutrient subsidy. Deposition of salmon carcasses in central Idaho riparian forests resulted in a 480-fold increase in soil nitrogen, a seven-fold increase in dissolved organic carbon, and a four-fold increase in soil respired CO2, with significant biogeochemical responses persisting at one year post amendment. Despite these the large increases in soil N and C, estimates of soil nitrogen and carbon loading only accounted for 31% and 16% of the fish carcass nitrogen and carbon, respectively. However, the magnitude and persistence of soil biogeochemical responses to the deposition of anadromous fish carcasses in Central Idaho attests to the importance of this nutrient subsidy to inland riparian ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author