Windthrow disturbance impacts soil biogeochemistry and bacterial communities in a temperate forest.

Aims: Forests across the world are subject to disturbance via wind, wildfire, and pest and disease outbreaks. Yet we still have an incomplete understanding of how these stressors impact forest biota-particularly the soil microbes, which govern forest carbon and nutrient cycling. Methods: Here, we investigated the impact of a severe windstorm on soil bacterial communities in Kielder Forest, a temperate coniferous forest in the north of England. Within ten individual sites, defined by common stand composition and topography, we established 50 m Results: Less than a year after the storm, we found that the most severely disturbed stands had lower canopy cover, lower soil carbon content, higher soil pH, and a smaller fine root biomass than the undisturbed stands. Disturbance also impacted bacterial community beta-diversity, but the effects were subtle and did not vary among assemblages in bulk vs. rhizosphere soils. Conclusions: Impacts of aboveground disturbance on soil biogeochemistry can be significant, but soil bacterial communities are relatively well-buffered against these changes. However, altered patterns of root growth and carbon cycling may have longer-term implications for forest recovery after windthrow disturbances. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11104-024-07086-8.