Content and concentration SO42- in soil water and throughfall in submountain beech ecosystems

The paper deals with the results of the sulphate sulphur content and its concentration in soil water from the beech forests situated in the the Kremnické vrchy Mts. (West Carpathian Mts.). The S-SO4 2- content in bulk precipitation, throughfall and soil water for the 1989--2008 period was studied at two sites with different emission load. During the research at the low polluted area the Kremnické vrchy Mts. the highest SO4 2- values were found at the open field, for bulk precipitation and soil water 480.7 kg.ha -1 . The sulphur amount in soil water in the beech stand declined with the soil depth from about 23.1 kg.ha -1 .yr -1 (K00 soil horizon) to 7.7 kg.ha -1 .yr -1 (K25 soil horizon). However the mean concentration of SO4 2- increased from 15.52 mg.l -1 in the K00 layer to 17,34 mg.l -1 in the K25 layer. Similar trend was found at the open field (13.99 mg.l -1 in the H0 0 layer, 15.41 mg.l -1 in the H25 layer). 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 0.1m and 0.25m depth between the study areas. No significance of differences between the years at the same plot was found.