Finding the Mother Tree: Uncovering the Wisdom and Intelligence of the Forest

by Suzanne Simard

But while the addition of new nitrogen—or, more precisely, atmospheric nitrogen that had been transformed to ammonium—stopped with the loss of the alder and its partner Frankia, there was a short-term pulse of other nutrients (phosphorus, sulfur, calcium) to the soil as the dead roots and stems decomposed. As this detritus decayed, the alder proteins and DNA were further mineralized, or broken down, into the inorganic nitrogen compounds of ammonium and nitrate. Through these processes, the nitrogen was being recycled and released as inorganic nitrogen. The inorganic compounds, dissolved in soil water, were then readily available for the pine seedlings to take up, briefly boosting their growth. After about a year, however, after the dead alder had long since decomposed and the mineralized nitrogen had been consumed by seedlings or plants or microbes, or leached through the groundwater, the total amount of nitrogen in the bare-earth treatment plummeted compared to where alder grew freely. The short-term pulse of nitrogen as ammonium and nitrates released during decomposition was quickly used up, and there was no alder left to replace or augment that nitrogen. It went missing in action. By fall of