Cycling of organic and inorganic sulphur in a chestnut oak forest

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Abstract
Sulfur (S) cycling in a chestnut oak forest on Walker Branch Watershed, Tennessee, was dominated by geochemical processes involving sulfate. Even though available SO 4 2- was present far in excess of forest nutritional requirements, the ecosystem as a whole accumulated ∼60% of incoming SO4−S. Most (90%) of this accumulation occurred by SO 4 2- adsorption in sesquioxide-rich subsurface soils, with a relatively minor amount accumulating and cycling as SO 4 2- within vegetative components. Organic sulfates are thought to constitute a large proportion of total S in surface soils, also, and to provide a pool of readily mineralized available S within the ecosystem.