Nothofagus pumilio forest affected by recent tephra deposition in northern Patagonia. I-Environmental traits influencing seedling growth

The 2011 Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic eruption left vast areas of Nothofagus pumilio forests covered by high volumes of tephra, which buried the understory. This event offered a unique opportunity to analyse the impact of recent tephra deposition and the main environmental factors affecting the growth of N. pumilio seedlings. To this end, three study sites were selected and sampled three years after the eruption, two with a thick tephra layer (50 cm) but with different tree conditions: i) most trees alive or ii) most trees dead, and a third site, iii) with minimal tephra deposition. From each site, five N. pumilio 18-month-old seedlings were collected, morphometrically measured (shoot, epicotyl and main root length; shoot epicotyl and root collar diameter), and environmental factors were also registered (light intensity, soil pH and conductivity, available P, bulk and particle soil density, and porosity). The main results indicated that three years after eruption the site with tephra deposition and dead trees (the most near to the crater) had the biggest seedlings, the lowest pH and the highest values for available P and light intensity. This temporally unique geological event showed that the regeneration potentiality of N. pumilio is high when environmental factors allow direct incident light on a substrate with high mineral content, even when the environment has previously been subjected to a significant degree of disturbance. Given the recurrence of volcanic events in northern Patagonia, this subject merits further long-term study.