The concentration of SO 42– and amount of S-SO 42– in soil water and throughfall in beech forest of Štiavnické vrchy Mts, Slovakia

Abstract

The paper deals with the results of concentration SO 42– and amount of S-SO 42– in soil water from the beech forest situated in the the Štiavnické vrchy Mts. The mean concentration of SO 42– increased from 19.06 mg l –1 in the depth of surface humus (F 00 ) to 29.32 mg l –1 in the depth 0.25 m (F 25 ). To the soil during the study period input 415 kg S-SO 42– ha –1 – F 00 and 587 kg S-SO 42– ha –1 in the layer F 25 . The highest SO 42– concentration were observed during the year 1988 in the all depths, but the lowest values were found in the year 2010 in the F 00 layer with 8.02 mg l –1 . The SO 42– concentration in soil water with the depth increased. The regression analysis found out a statistically significant influence of the sulphur content in the atmospheric deposition on the sulphur content in soil water. A significant correlation between the precipitation amount and the content of sulphur in precipitation and in soil water was observed. Student’s t-test for dependent variables confirmed statistically strong significant differences of the sulphur content in soil water in the 0.1 m and 0.25 m depth between the study areas. No significance of differences between the years at the same plot was found.