Impact of Nitrogen Deposition on the Species Richness of Grasslands
Abstract
A transect of 68 acid grasslands across Great Britain, covering the lower range of ambient annual nitrogen deposition in the industrialized world (5 to 35 kg N ha-1 year-1), indicates that long-term, chronic nitrogen deposition has significantly reduced plant species richness. Species richness declines as a linear function of the rate of inorganic nitrogen deposition, with a reduction of one species per 4-m2 quadrat for every 2.5 kg N ha-1 year-1 of chronic nitrogen deposition. Species adapted to infertile conditions are systematically reduced at high nitrogen deposition. At the mean chronic nitrogen deposition rate of central Europe (17 kg N ha-1 year-1), there is a 23% species reduction compared with grasslands receiving the lowest levels of nitrogen deposition.
- Publication:
-
Science
- Pub Date:
- March 2004
- DOI:
- 10.1126/science.1094678
- Bibcode:
- 2004Sci...303.1876S
- Keywords:
-
- ECOLOGY