Coupled Nitrogen and Calcium Cycling in Forests across a Gradient of Soil Nitrogen Availability
Abstract
Nitrogen (N) is a critical limiting nutrient that regulates plant productivity and the cycling of essential base cations in forests. Increases in N availability beyond the threshold of plant and ecosystem needs may drive non-linear biogeochemical changes that include excess nitrate leaching and base cation depletion from soils. While such variations in N cycling are typically associated with polluted regions, comparable changes may also occur in unpolluted forests of the Pacific Northwest due to legacies of soil N enrichment from biological N fixation in red alder. We sampled 22 young Douglas-fir stands in the Oregon Coast Range, and found that surface soil calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) concentrations were inversely related to N across a gradient from 0.15 to 1.1 soil %N. Strontium isotope ratios indicate that N-rich forests are decoupled from weathering, and obtain > 97% of base cation nutrition from marine sea-salt aerosols. However, high Ca:Mg ratios of plant demands relative to aerosol inputs selectively fosters Ca deficiency at high soil N. Plant and soil patterns were similar for sandstone versus basalt derived soils, indicating that biological N availability - not bedrock - can be the primary control of coupled N and base cation cycling across areas of high N enrichment.
- Publication:
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AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004AGUSM.H22A..03P
- Keywords:
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- 4805 Biogeochemical cycles (1615)